Frenchman has excellent final lap in qualifying to take third place on Le Mans starting grid.

Zarco, French Moto2 2015

On the second day of the French Grand Prix, home rider Johann Zarco showed that he is one of the favourites for victory tomorrow. After setting a frenetic pace in the final practice session, the Ajo Motorsport rider took a late spot on the front row for his home GP. A 1:37.222 lap gave him third place on the grid.

Saturday started with a final practice session, in which Zarco ran a very good pace. High up on the timesheets during the opening minutes of the session, the Ajo Motorsport rider continued strongly to further improve his times. With a best lap of 1:37.796, Zarco finished the session second -0.050 off the top time in the session.

On a cool and wet track, Zarco went into qualifying wanting to get a good starting position for Sunday. The Frenchman took things cautiously in the early stages but went from strength to strength on his three runs. In his last outing he has fought to put his Ajo Motorsport Kalex on the front row -doing so with a great final lap of 1:37.222.

Starting from third tomorrow, Zarco will be out for a second win of the season -and a fourth consecutive podium- when the Moto2 French GP gets underway at 12:20pm local time.

Results (Qualifying practice)
1. Alex Rins (Kalex) 1:37.114
2. Sam Lowes (Speed UP) 1:37.114
3. Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) 1:37.222 +0.108
4. Tito Rabat (Kalex) 1:37.329 +0.215
5. Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) 1:37.415 +0.301

Johann Zarco,
“I’m happy, because the qualifying session did not start very well and I was pretty slow. With the new tyres my feeling improved and I could get myself into first, so that has been positive. Some riders bested my time, it started to rain a little and from then on it was not easy. At the end of the session the track was in good shape, so I pushed hard to try and I managed to get onto the front row. That will be important for tomorrow. My pace is good and I’m happy. My goal for tomorrow is to finish the race, fight for victory and enjoy the moment. We’ll see what happens with the weather.”