Johann Zarco “impressed” by Mir, “I need to open my mind”

Johann Zarco says he needs to “really open my mind” when it comes to base set-up and riding style if he’s to unlock the kind of speed shown by Joan Mir on Honda’s latest MotoGP updates.

The LCR Honda rider revealed he had reverted to earlier parts at Phillip Island in a bid to regain confidence with the RC213V.

At Sepang, Zarco experimented with different engine specs early in the weekend before switching back to the new engine configuration for the races, scoring points in both for the first time since Austria.

However, the Frenchman could only manage 12th place in Sunday’s grand prix, while Mir - who crashed out of the podium fight in Saturday’s Sprint - celebrated his second Honda podium in four rounds.

“The situation in Honda is clearly much better than one year ago,” Zarco said.

“The podium of Mir proves that the bike can be in the top five.

“Yesterday he was feeling also pretty good… and today he confirmed that he was fast again.

“I was behind him, and he was very impressive. He has his own riding style and with all this new package, he's feeling very good.

“So, I need to find a solution for this new package.

“I could not work a long time on it yet. And my setup base on this new package, we tried for a few races to make it work, and it seems it doesn't work.

“So I need to really open my mind to another way of setting the bike and maybe to re-adapt the riding style to use the performance of this new bike, because the performance is there.”

Mir’s HRC team-mate Luca Marini, also using the new Honda package, spent much of the grand prix bottled up behind Zarco, before breaking through to claim eighth place.

Zarco will take a slim six-point lead over the Italian, for eleventh and top Honda honours in the world championship standings, into the final two rounds.

Mir is currently 15th, on 93 points compared to 134 for Le Mans winner Zarco.