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Johann Zarco got on the podium in Barcelona today in a truly unexpected way, making the most of Aleix Espargarò's resounding mistake, who had begun to celebrate earlier than he should have. But, in order to take advantage of certain situations, you have to be in the right place at the right time, and Johann was impeccable in this.
The French rider continues to be a certainty for Ducati, constantly at the top and great in the standings, since he’s now in 4th place behind Bastianini. A result made possible because he’s reliable in the race. But Johann was very critical in a press conference about Taka Nakagami’s behavior, who had instead defended at Mugello.
"It was difficult. Rins had started out really well, and I thought he was going to enter the corner from the outside. Then I saw Nakagami coming in too fast. Like Jorge said, I thought he’d go wide. But then I saw that he touched Pecco's bike with his head, and they all fell. At the end of this mess, I ended up fifth. I had Pol Espargarò in front of me, but I passed he right away. From there, I tried to be fast and keep up with Aleix and Jorge. Fabio was going too fast. I knew I was the only one with hard tires in the group, and I wanted to manage them better. I didn't want to stress them too much. I tried to stay constant, to have a lower drop but, in the end, I actually couldn't keep up with Jorge and Aleix, and I felt I was losing the podium. I also felt frustrated by this. Fourth place would have been a good result, but then came this gift. When I saw Aleix, I thought he had a technical problem, then I saw him celebrate. I knew he was celebrating earlier than he should have. I just tried to stay focused. It was a nice gift on a good weekend."
You got a good look at Nakagami's accident. What do you think?
”We talked about him in safety commission and at Mugello. Rins asked us about the accident he had with Nakagami. He wanted our opinion on what happened. We all agreed that Taka hadn't made any mistakes there and that he didn't deserve a penalty. But we all agree that Taka is sometimes too aggressive in overtaking. With what he did today, he lost all the credibility we had given him in sfety commission. I don't know what's going to happen, but Taka made a big mistake. He totally missed the trail braking point. If they do nothing for the next races, he might do worse."
When Aleix realized there was a lap missing, he started pushing again. Were you afraid he could catch up with you?
”When I saw that he had slowed down, I also thought that he could catch up to battle it out with me if he had noticed right away. But I saw on the big screens at the edge of the track that it took him a while to understand the situation. In the end, I was suffering a lot with the rear tire, trying to be as gentle as possible. I didn't know where he was. I was afraid he'd caught me. In the end, having Martín as a reference helped me. If only Aleix were in front of me, maybe I would have also made a mistake. Instead, Jorge kept pushing, and I thought ‘okay, I have to keep pushing!’. At that moment, I lost my concentration, then I recovered, and got on the podium."
But something like this has never happened to you in your career. How do you know the race is over?
"We're not always look at how many laps are left all the time, in the end, we usually do. We have time to do that. Sometimes, when you're fighting, you can't see the checkered flag. In the end, you usually see it. Today we knew we were on the last lap. In the end, I keep repeating that what happened was a surprise. A big surprise. Fortunately, I’ve never made such a mistake."
