MotoGP Silverstone: ‘I have an advantage, I will take it’ - Zarco

Johann Zarco will head the Silverstone grid for the British Grand Prix on Sunday after securing his eighth pole position in MotoGP.

The Prima Pramac rider stormed to success with a record-breaking 1’57.767 lap to claim the new all-time lap record at the UK venue, previously held by Marc Marquez. In fact Saturday’s qualifying session was so intense that the top eight riders were all under the Repsol Honda man’s previous benchmark - including rookie Marco Bezzecchi - with six riders circulating on 1’57 pace in quick succession.

Having topped Friday’s opening session as well as Saturday’s FP4, and remanned in the top four for the remaining practices, Zarco has been one of the most consistent performers in 2022, sitting third in the championship standings despite not having won a race in the premier class. It’s a target he would like to achieve at the British track if everything comes together in the awaiting 20-lap race.

“Nice feeling,” Zarco said from the post-qualifying press conference. “This morning already I could think about this lap around ‘58 but I had a crash and then in the afternoon during the FP4 I make good lap times with the hard rear tyre. When I moved to the soft one for the qualifier I was feeling quite good on the bike. First lap in ‘58.4 was already good.

“I was feeling that there is something extra to do and the second tyre gave me the good lap. Jack [Miller] and Fabio [Quartararo] was a bit in front so it was a great reference to have this motivation. Pretty happy that just on the first lap of the tyre I think is the best performance I could do.

“I didn’t have time to analyse well the sectors but my team say that in sector three, I was losing time so it seems that there is still a margin to go even