Can Honda surprise in MotoGP final?

Johann Zarco ‘s pace on Friday suggests Honda could be competitive at the Barcelona Grand Prix and the Japanese manufacturer could have a chance to end a nightmare 2024 season on a high.

LCR rider Zarco took his Honda RC213V to fourth place in main practice in Barcelona, ​​around 0.3sec behind leader Francesco Bagnaia.

The slipstream from the faster bikes in the final sector also played a big role in Zarco’s time of 1:39.147.

That leaves Zarco aiming for a top two finish in Saturday’s qualifying, adding that achieving that feat would be a “fantastic thing” for the struggling Japanese marque.

The 34-year-old rated his final effort in main practice as one of his best laps of the year but said he could have been quicker if he had not made minor mistakes on his next lap.

“This tour could be one of the best tours of the year,” Zarco said. “My tour in Thailand was also a good tour and another one was in Aragon.”

“Overall it was great to have a good lap at the end of the session. But I made a few mistakes on the last tyre so I couldn’t get a better time.”

“Still, there is a positive outlook for tomorrow. I am particularly pleased with how the afternoon training went and I hope to continue like this.”

“It looks like there’s an opportunity for the first two places, which will be great for tomorrow. Then in the race, when the tyres start to be used, there will be a big change in the behaviour of the bike.”

“I don’t know if we will have a solution for tomorrow, but at least we can try to catch the tempo and then control it.”

After making limited progress in the first half of the season due to a lack of development in the bike, Honda began to show a marked improvement from mid-August.

Zarco finished in the top 10 twice in the Asian leg, with his best result coming in eighth in Thailand.

Factory Honda driver Marini praised Zarco for his lap in Barcelona and believes his Q2 finish shows Honda is on the right track.

“Johann went very fast, he did a great time and the progress we have made on the bike, the improvements we have made, are paying off,” he said.

Marini and Mir finished 16th and 18th respectively in practice on their factory Hondas, while Takaaki Nakagami finished 14th on the other LCR bike.