Johann Zarco got straight to work under the blazing sun in San Marino as the 13th round of the World Championship began on Friday.
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider kicked off proceedings by finishing FP1 in 9th despite a fall md season. He almost fell earlier in the session but masterfully saved the bike after touching the wet grass.
He followed this performance up in the afternoon to complete the day in 12th with a gap of only 0.683 separating him from the top of the order.
"The first day in Misano was positive and I am happy to experience this track on my Yamaha YZR-M1,” he said. “It's not easy because this circuit, as I expected, is quite small for the premier class bikes.”
“Therefore, I tried to complete a lot of laps in order to find the best references for myself and then give some good information to my team so that we could set the bike up well. In the afternoon, it was a shame to finish 12th, but when we analyse the times, we can see that we did ok.”
“Now, I need to stay calm and work with my crew and on myself too so that we can improve tomorrow. There, I aim to prepare for the race but also be ready for qualifying where I hope to end up on the front two rows."
