Team JiR’s Johann Zarco settled for a superb sixth place finish in today’s Australian Grand Prix aboard his MotoBI machine.
It was a tough 25-lap race for the 22-year-old as he battled hard with more experienced Moto2 riders to record another strong top-ten finish. Despite being as high as fourth place early on, the Frenchman struggled to stay with the lead group but instead battled hard for more vital points which saw him finally crowned ‘Rookie of the Year’ in the class. Today’s points haul also saw him move back into 10th place overall in the championship standings.
His 16-year-old team-mate Eric Granado had another hard race at this first appearance in Australia. The Brazilian found it hard to get to grips with the circuit after missing track time yesterday and is now looking forward to Valencia, which is a circuit he already has knowledge of.
The race was won in fine style by Spaniard Pol Espargaro, with third-place man Marc Marquez crowned Moto2 World Champion. Local hero Anthony West was second.
Gianluca Montiron – JiR Team Principal
“A satisfactory race that allows us to win with a race to spare the Rookie of the Year award and get back into the top ten of the world championship. The crash in the warm-up session is a pity, at the beginning of the race Johann got stuck in the pack while the top riders in front of him were already getting away, they took a lead over the group that eventually allowed them to fight for the podium on their own. Our Moto2 season so far has been important and we are satisfied and fully aware now of the capabilities of Johann, he will improve with the experience because the times recorded show that he still has margin of improvement on the consistency of his performance along the race length. The team worked throughout the year to put both Johann and Granado in the best and identical technical conditions, as a confirmation just compare the times to those scored last year to see that the MotoBI is a winning bike and the development carried out this year, thanks to Johann, have given positive results. Granado has experienced the harsh weather conditions at Phillip Island, the fact that he has improved by one second his lap times in the race over practice is an evidence that shows that he needs time to grow. I offer my congratulations to the new Moto2 World Champion and to the race winner, who both this year have made a difference.”
Johann Zarco – Position: 6th Best lap: 1m 34.811s
"I’m fine with finishing the race in sixth position and happy to be Rookie of the Year and regain 10th in the championship, but although I enjoyed today’s race it wasn’t easy. At the beginning of the race I made a good start and was as high as fourth in the early laps. Then I couldn’t match the times of the leaders and fell back into the following pack. There it was a big battle and I made some overtakes and on the last lap coming out of the last corner I was fifth but then as I always wasn’t so fast in the final sector I got taken for that position before the line and lost fifth by just one-tenth of a second. The pace was quite hot in the race and I wasn’t far off my qualifying lap time, with the average lap times being in the 1m 35.0 and 35.2 bracket. Now we look forward to Valencia where the goal is still the same – a podium before the end of the year.”
Eric Granado – Position: 26th Best lap: 1m 39.005s
"As much as Phillip Island is an amazing track, this was not such an enjoyable race for me and the three long-haul races at Motegi, Sepang and Phillip Island have been tough for me. I’ve tried 100% since first practice this weekend but we lost a lot of time in the pits yesterday at a crucial time and that has hurt us. I am still finding my way to getting a better riding style on my MotoBI but there have been some positives and my time in the race was better than in qualifying. It was difficult being lapped and there was some confusion for me about whether I finished the race or not as I had to pit, but all we can do is look forward to Valencia, which at least is a track I know well.”
JiR Moto2 Racing Team Press Release
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