Ajo Motorsport rider starts French Grand Prix with good feeling and fourth on the combined timesheet.

Zarco, French Moto2 2015

Moto2 World Championship leader Johann Zarco completed a positive first day of work at the French Grand Prix, placing fourth on the combined timesheet with a best lap of 1:37.944. He was amongst the frontrunners throughout the day in front of his home fans.

The Ajo Motorsport rider began the preparations for the French round by leading much of the morning session. Zarco improved lap-by-lap, with red helmet markers on the timing screens frequent for the Frenchman for the first 20 minutes. He lowered his lap time continuously to end the opening session at Le Mans in third position -with a time of 1:38.217.

Also high up the order during the second practice session, Zarco made two runouts for a total of 20 laps of the French track. A change of radiator for his Kalex, 20 minutes from the end of the session, forced him to spend several minutes in the garage. However, he continued to lower his lap times when he reemerged and ended the day in fourth.

Johann Zarco will be chasing a home pole position on Saturday in front of the Le Mans crowd. The qualifying session will start at 3:05pm (local time).

Results (Combined practice time FP1-FP2)
1. Tito Rabat (Kalex) 1:37.625
2. Thomas Luthi (Kalex) 1:37.707 +0.082
3. Luis Salom (Kalex) 1:37.794 +0.169
4. Johann Zarco (Kalex) 1:37.944 +0.319
5. Sam Lowes (Speed Up) 1:37.968 +0.343

Johann Zarco,
“I’m happy with how I started today. It went well and in the afternoon we took a step up compared with the morning session. The conditions were good and were even better in the afternoon. I enjoyed myself on the bike, always trying to improve my riding style. It is a small circuit, so if you can ride well you can go very fast. I’m happy with this first day. We will continue working hard, and I have already seen the tyre with which I feel best, so I’ll use tomorrow to confirm that and then prepare as much as possible for the race. It has been very good to see the difference and understand why I am going faster or slower. I have confidence in the team, they are doing their job very well and I think tomorrow we can continue to improve.”