Ajo Motorsport rider focuses on finding a wet setup for his Kalex and sets day’s fastest time in the last two sessions.

Bad weather again presented a challenge for the Moto2 and Moto3 riders today in Jerez, but the conditions did not prevent Johann Zarco from continuing with his preparations for the season opener in Qatar next week. The Frenchman focused his Wednesday workload on finding a good setup for completely wet conditions. In the two sessions held with a fully wet surface, Zarco was the fastest.

The Frenchman completed just 8 laps in the first session of the day for the Moto2  class, placing sixteenth with a 1:47.061 time. He rode 4 laps with wet tyres and half with slicks, due to mixed levels of asphalt dampness. In the second session a mere 20 minutes in the rain proved profitable for Zarco, who was able to test several things pending from yesterday. With 7 minutes to go, he topped the timesheet -later sealing the day’s fastest time with a 1:57.659 on his final lap. That was some 1.1seconds quicker than his nearest rival.

In the final session, Zarco took another step forward. He went out late on to practice his starts, with time to complete a total of 11 laps and set the quickest time of the session on completely wet asphalt on his last attempt: 1:55.449.

The final Moto2 preseason test concludes tomorrow, with no major improvements to the weather forecast.

Results – Combined Standings Day 2
1. Sam Lowes (Speed Up) 1:44.129
2. Jonas Folger (Kalex) 1:45.207 +1.078
3. Thomas Luthi (Kalex) 1:45.244 +1.115
4. Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) 1:45.651 +1.522
5. Randy Krummenacher (Kalex) 1:45.709 +1.580
16. Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) 1:47.061 +2.932

Johann Zarco

“It was interesting to ride in the wet today. We only put the slicks on once, but the goal today was not to be fast in these conditions but rather to work well to have a good feelings in the wet -and to practice our starts a little before the first race in Qatar. I was consistent and that’s the most important thing. I also have a good feeling in the dry, so I hope that tomorrow we can avoid the rain and gather more data ahead of Qatar. The team have everything necessary for that first race. In general, today was good and so was yesterday. The work that the team have done has been great. I feel at home with them, and that’s very important.”