Zarco “the loser of the day” after finishing 17th in Aragon MotoGP

The satellite Ducati rider has all but given up on fighting for the 2021 title since the summer break, but believes finishing runner-up is an achievable goal.

However, a victory for Francesco Bagnaia on the Ducati and a third for Joan Mir on the Suzuki has put Zarco down to fourth in the standings and 24 points off second place.

Asked how he sees his hopes of finishing second in the standings in the final five races, Zarco said: “I’m seeing that I’m lucky that I did a very good beginning of the championship, because when I look at the championship for sure Pecco did the perfect operation and a fantastic victory, and Mir also had a strong result.

“So, just looking at it I’m the loser of the day, but if they did it I can do it also.

“Just my time is not coming right now, and it has to come back. So, the final podium is a nice target and I will push for it.”

Zarco was the only rider on the grid to race with the medium front tyre while the rest went with the hard.

He says this was a result of not having a good feeling on the harder option and was anticipating a colder race, which would have made the medium more viable.

However, he says there was no “big limit” on the front-end and his race was simply ‘blocked’ by something.

“No, the choice of the front tyre is not because of the arm,” Zarco said when asked if the arm-pump issues he’d experienced during the weekend conditioned his tyre choice.

“I didn’t get any fantastic feeling on the hard one, and this medium tyre usually I feel it well and I expected today to have less temperature.

“In what we planned could work well, but during the race it was so super-hot, and I cannot say with the hard I would have been much better.

“But my choice for the medium because on the hard, when I tried it, I didn’t have a great feeling on it and I wanted to go on a safe side.

“So, I didn’t feel any big limit on the front, but something has been blocking today and when something is blocking you are just suffering all the race without extra power to try something.”