Following three exciting rounds for Johann Zarcoand Hafizh Syahrinin Qatar, Argentina and Texas, the Grand Prix circuit is heading back to Europe this week for the Spanish GP in Jerez de la Frontera, where both Monster Yamaha Tech3riders aim to continue their respective strong performances.
However, Zarco has an impressive statistic under his belt, as apart from his first ever MotoGP race in Qatar 2017, the French star never missed out on the points and therefore intends to extend his success with a 21stresult inside the points scoring ranks in succession this weekend in Andalusia. Meanwhile Syahrin maintains the top spot of the Rookie of the Year ranking, although he wasn’t able to finish the Americas GP. The Malaysian MotoGP newcomer is set to attack again, starting with the first Free Practice on Friday at 9.55 local time.
Rider1 2018
Johann Zarco
Championship: 5th– Points: 38
“We’re back to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, a track, that I think everybody likes and I enjoy it, too. I’ve got some great memories from last year and I want an even better souvenir this year. I feel the bike well and after Texas I needed some time to get along with the jetlag, which was quite difficult this time. It took me two days to have the full energy during the day back, but now I feel ready enough and I’m just happy to be back on my bike. I’ll try to push the Yamaha in the right way to fight for the victory, if we are able to do so. Let’s trust in the victory and the podium and wait and see what happens.”
Zarco – 2018
Rider1 2018
Hafizh Syahrin
Championship: 13th– Points: 9
“I’m looking forward to the next race in Jerez de la Frontera. My physical condition is getting better and better and I think I meanwhile learned what I need for the big bike. After the disappointment in Texas, I’m feeling good again and I was training a lot with the bicycle, dirt bike and trial, so I’m more than ready to get it started again. I will try to avoid to repeat the mistake I did in the Americas GP Warm Up and I hope I can end up in the points scoring positions again.”
Syahrin – 2018
Herve Poncharal 2018
Team Manager
“We had a few days at the office on the way back from the USA, that helped everybody to recover and to get ready to organize the logistics for the European rounds, who are quite different to the overseas Grand Prix’. That kept all of us busy, but now we already have half of the team on the road driving to beautiful Andalusia. Jerez is always a very special place because of the location, which is truly amazing, because of the fans that are passionate and really hot and because of the racing, which is always incredibly close and exciting there. We at Monster Yamaha Tech3 arrive in Jerez with an interesting position being the joint independent team leader with Johann and Cal Crutchlow equal on points and leading the rookie classification with Hafizh. We have great memories of how Johann and the Yamaha YZR-M1 are working in Jerez from last year, where he had an incredible fight, leading the race for some laps, fighting with Marc Marquez and only giving up the podium to Jorge Lorenzo. Let’s hope we can repeat this kind of performance this year. Johann is eager to continue the incredible start of year he is having. On Hafizh’ side, I would say the same. He was really disappointed, that he was not able to score in Texas, but we could see that in Qualifying and before the crash he was very fast and he will want to be fast like this again and fighting with his fellow rookies. Spain is a special country for him, because this is his base in Europe. He has a lot of fans there and his nickname is ‘El Pescao’, therefore this round is one of his second home GP’s. Everybody at Monster Yamaha Tech3 can’t wait to be on the track to meet all of our friends we haven’t seen since Valencia 2017, because some of the staff do not follow the overseas. It will be the first GP where we can see everybody working in MotoGP and we can’t wait to meet them there.”