IN
THE
WIND
P28
ZARCO TOPS QATAR TEST
O
ne year ago, MotoGP rookie
Johann Zarco sensation-
ally led the way in his MotoGP
debut under the floodlights at
Qatar. Now, on essentially the
same 2016 Monster Yamaha,
the French former double Moto2
World Champion rose to domi-
nate three days of testing at
the same Losail desert circuit,
March 1-3.
But there were a few crumbs
of comfort for the factory Yama-
ha riders, neither of whom were
able to match Zarco's speed nor,
more importantly, his consis-
tency. But at the end, Valentino
Rossi did move his Movistar
Yamaha up to second, albeit
two-tenths of a second slower.
And while a hitherto increasingly
nonplussed teammate Maverick
Vinales was placed fifth overall,
he was at least able to say, "In
the last 40 minutes we made a
big step in settings," allowing him
to start to push harder for the
first time all season.
The track clearly suits the
Yamaha M1, which has won there
five times in the past six years.
The second-year Frenchman set
a time of 1:54.029, inside the
official lap record and faster than
Vinales' pole last year, though a
couple of tenths short of Loren-
zo's best-ever lap, also set on a
Yamaha (2008).
While times were close behind
Rossi, second to rookie Hafizh
Syahrin (Monster Yamaha) in
16th covered by one second,
Zarco was fully two-tenths ahead
of the multi-champion Rossi.
But he was a little disap-
pointed. "I thought I could get
under 1:54, and also when I tried
longer runs today I was constant,
but I think too slow. We still need
to do some more work," Zarco
said.
Zarco's pre-eminence at the
final pre-season test came after
three strong days for the former
double FIM Moto2 Champion,
using a 2016 chassis rather than
last year's troublesome factory
Who says you
need a new bike?
Johann Zarco
used the old
YZR-M1 to destroy
the field in the
Qatar test.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
