Johann Zarco “could not improve the feeling” during Spanish MotoGP weekend

For much of the first part of the 2025 MotoGP season, Johann Zarco has been the best Honda rider, but that wasn’t the case at the Spanish Grand Prix which the French rider admitted was “a tough weekend for me”.

The LCR Honda rider was the second Honda on the classification, behind Luca Marini, but he had been struggling since Friday and had generally been out-paced by Joan Mir, who qualified behind Zarco but ended the race with a crash while battling for sixth with Franco Morbidelli.

“A tough weekend for me,” Zarco summarised when speaking to MotoGP.com after the Spanish Grand Prix.

“I could not improve the feeling during the weekend and it got even worse.

“So then, for the Sunday, I had to do kind of a reset and accept what was going on, and just try to catch some points.”

The LCR Honda rider was surprised by his progress in the first corners, but couldn’t hold a strong enough pace as the 25 laps unfolded to hold onto a place in the top-10, ultimately finishing 11th.

“The start and the first two corners were quite amazing because from 10th position I went to sixth,” he said.

“I was ready to stay there and keep the pace, that’s just what I wanted because almost the hardest thing was done with a good start.

“But I could not keep the pace, the bike was sliding too much and I was also losing time in the entry of the corner. All these problems I had during the weekend I could not really fix and could not feel much better during the long race, so I tried to finish.

“Marini has been very consistent and I could not overtake him on the last lap, he closed pretty well the door, so I could not save the top-10 but at least the five points for the 11th place is always better than nothing.”