MotoGP Germany: “Ducati’s potential is pretty high,” says Poleman Zarco

06/19/2021 |
Christina Bulpett |
MotoGP

Image: GeeBee Pictures

Johann Zarco von Pramac clinched his first MotoGP pole position in 2021 at the Sachsenring this afternoon after beating his compatriot Fabio Quartararo by just 0.011 seconds.

In a controversial session in which several drivers appeared to be waiting for a towing service in the middle of a 15-minute shootout, the Ducati man cheered that he had got the most out of his Desmosedici on such a notoriously difficult route – despite a fall his last attempt at turn four when his bike landed in the air fence.

“On this pretty good lap, I also feel a lot of emotion and adrenaline,” exclaimed Zarco at the end of qualifying.

“I enjoyed using the tire on the first lap – you can feel the extra power, but at the beginning of qualifying I couldn’t do it well. I managed to do it on the second tire and I’m pretty happy. I was surprised by the time, then I tried to give a little more for the remaining lap, but I think too much lean angle in this turn five and I closed the front. Fortunately it’s not a very fast turn, and with my full lean I was already on the ground so it was just a slide! But as I said, very high adrenaline, because the emotions of the good lap time and then the focus, the confidence in the bike, the fall. Also the bike in the air fence – there was some smoke and I asked the marshal to get the bike out as soon as possible so as not to start a fire.

“With all of this, I need a little time to really calm down. Everything was good and it’s nice here at the Sachsenring too. It’s a difficult track for me and the stats aren’t the best for Ducati, but as I said, the potential is pretty high so we can have a surprise like today and I hope I’ll still be the first one tomorrow !

“When I think about victory now, I am very optimistic because I still have a big question mark about the race pace. I took a big step from yesterday to this morning, so that’s nice proof of the good work we have done with the team. In the afternoon I was first in FP4, but that’s because I changed the tire at the end of practice – because I struggled a lot with the used tire – but it’s always helpful to get information. I hope to find another step with the team tomorrow. It’s difficult for us, but I think it’s difficult for others too. Starting from pole gives me the advantage of having the chance not to control the race, but to control my tires a little and see if I can be first or not.

“It’s difficult to stay on the left side of the tire for so long on this track. Once the tire gets too warm it becomes difficult to ride fast or really control the bike or feel good. This is perhaps the biggest tricky part of the race, but less of a problem for a time attack because the tire is fresh and doesn’t have time to get too hot. Before at Turn 11 the front was difficult, when it’s a little cold we have a lot of falls, this year we don’t have any falls at Turn 11, so I’m happy about that. “

The Frenchman spoke about the problem of drivers waiting for a towing service on the track in both MotoGP and Moto3 classes and was pretty pragmatic.

“It’s only really a problem for Fabio because he’s the fastest at the moment and we try to stand behind him more than we do alone. He’s trying to be alone because he knows he can! ‘ explained Zarco.

“In Moto GP we have fewer people waiting and if we are out of line it can work. In MotoGP, too, the tire is not hot enough if you wait too long and you can’t push on the next lap anyway, so we’re always in this balance – if you wait too much, you might start pushing and crash on the first corner. I don’t know what it’s like in Moto3 when they have more leeway with the tires for that. They try to impose penalties in Moto3 because it happens more often and a lot of riders are waiting. It’s hard because it helps me take the final step, and today I’m involved because I have a good reference in front of me, even if I wasn’t quite behind. For me it’s still a part of the game – if not there is the game of Superpole which will give others an edge, but we lose a bit of show. As long as, I hope, you don’t have an accident for it – because if there is an accident things will certainly change – but we all agree that it may not be dangerous at this point and we have to keep it like that. That’s why we also have Q1 and Q2, in order to have fewer people on the track, the system is not bad, but sometimes things like that happen, you get nervous or you can be disturbed by other drivers. “