Johann Zarco ninth, confirms soft will be the tyre to race

New Pramac Ducati rider Johann Zarco continued his good form in testing today, after setting another new unofficial MotoGP top speed record and a ninth place finish.

Zarco worked on his race pace for most of the day, but once again showed the unrelenting top end speed of the Bologna bullet. The Frenchman recorded a yet to be confirmed top speed of 357.69kph.

It was a busy day for Zarco, who admitted he didn't have the good feelings of yesterday. "Another really interesting day. It was planned to do this long run at the end of the day and get some information about the race distance," said Zarco.

"Yesterday the feeling was so good, but today it was different and not as good. It was good to work on the bike more and now we will work to catch this feeling again.

"Before this long run we had to do many things and I did many laps. So I’m a little bit tired now.

"It was not a fantastic day because I didn’t feel as comfortable on the bike, but I’m still very happy because the tests are made for this. Jack [Miller] also struggled a little bit, and Pecco [Bagnaia] has been fast so we cannot say that the track was slower.

"I still don’t have the answer, but with everything we did today we have things to study. 

With one more day of testing left, Zarco wasted no time confirming his intention for the first race in Qatar and what tyres he will use. 

Zarco added: "I started today with the medium front as it was the afternoon and warm, but clearly when the night comes down, I don’t even think to put the medium, because you feel there is a limit quickly. It is already planned that the race will be soft, soft. 

"Things are working well. Some riders are doing mid 1m53 lows for a few laps or one lap, and we are breaking the lap record with the race tyres which is amazing. I broke the top speed today again.

With today being the first lengthy look at riders and their long runs, Zarco was asked about who makes the test schedules, and if he has a role to play with it. 

"It is Ducati, my crew chief, Gigi [Dall’igna] and the engineers that plan it and say it to me what they want to do," said the 30 year-old.

"Just today I asked to put one more rear tyre to do a lap time because on another I couldn’t make a clear decision which bike I like more. The one thing I asked was this rear tyre, so I could improve my lap time."