Johann Zarco, rider for the LCR Honda team, had a challenging day during the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he suffered his second technical retirement in two consecutive races. Despite a promising start, engine problems prevented him from achieving a good result in Sepang.
From the eighth position on the grid, Zarco got off to a good start, surpassing Fabio di Giannantonio from the VR46 team, and managed to stay close to Enea Bastianini from Tech3 KTM during the first part of the race. With this return, it seemed he could finish as the first Honda, but just three laps from the end, he lost pace and had to retire.
The French rider acknowledged that he was unsure of the exact nature of the problem, but he decided to stop to avoid further damaging the engine. ‘I had a technical problem. Clearly, it was not the same as at Phillip Island; it was completely different. I had no power left, so I was forced to stop, it didn’t make sense to finish the race under these conditions,’ Zarco commented.
Despite not scoring points in either Australia or Malaysia, Zarco remained optimistic about his performance, highlighting that he had battled to keep up with Bastianini for sixth place in the race.
‘I’m happy with how I managed the race. I tried to be aggressive at the beginning; it was nice to try to overtake and fight for positioning. I knew Enea was strong and would be throughout the race, so we lost a significant margin to the top five, but if I had stayed with him, perhaps we could have reduced the distance,’ he stated.
The high temperatures, which exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, made the race one of the hottest of the season. Zarco, who had already experienced physical discomfort due to the heat, noted that until lap 17, the race went better than he expected.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI