MotoGP Portimao test: ‘Pecco’s in control’ - Zarco

Prima Pramac’s Johann Zarco joined Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia at the top of the MotoGP times as preseason testing wrapped up at Portimao.

Ducati’s dominance saw seven of the top eight riders on Bologna machinery and all under the previous Algarve International Circuit’s all-time record after two days on track. Zarco completing his preseason preparations just three tenths shy of the reigning champion - with both on the upgraded GP23 - after 126 laps of the 4.6km rollercoaster layout.

“Pretty happy with the performance of the day,” Zarco said on Sunday. “Also good that yesterday after long work I was focused for the last day to work on details and get the performance on the time attack and get faster. I did it so that’s very positive.

“Work is pretty interesting. Clearly the image of the time attack is there. We kept the bike almost like a standard bike, and we were really working on some setup to give me the right feeling to be fast. It is good, when you want it you can do it.

“Very impressive, the lap time of Pecco, but he’s really controlling even better all the situation. This is my target, to reach this level.

“For the race pace, I didn’t take the time to do many laps in a row,” he admitted. “But we anyway had many laps with used tyres, many runs with the used tyres so we get some idea of what can be the situation, the behaviour of the bike with used tyres. I did like one long run, was interesting, but we will have a better image of what can be the race, during the race weekend.”