Johann Zarc0 (P1) – “There are no words to express what I felt today. We didn’t expect to win, and doing it on home soil is something truly incredible and emotional. It was a long and intense race, but the strategy we applied as a team really paid off. I took a gamble, as the forecast predicted rain, and today, we made the right call. Winning with Honda is something I’ve been aiming for, and now we’ve done it. Huge thanks to the team, to my parents who were here to experience the Grand Prix with me, to HRC, to the sponsors, and to everyone who’s supported us. This is a day I’ll never forget”.
Marc Márquez (P2) – “The main goal was to stay fully focused, as in these conditions any small mistake can cost you the race. The track was very slippery but not wet enough for the tyres to work at their best. The most challenging part of the race was the last five laps, as it was crucial to manage the situation — especially mentally — with no other riders nearby. The bike worked really well, but in the wet you never know what might happen. We made no mistakes today, and I’m happy with the result, though the season is still very long.”
Fermin Aldeguer (P3) – “I didn’t think I would have been so fast in the wet, the amount of experience was very little and I must say this morning I stayed put in the warm up as I didn’t want to take any risk. In the race, I followed the more experienced riders, even though I made it back to the pits one lap too late but in hindsight, it went well. I knew fourth would have been a good result, but I saw the podium within reach and I kept believing. This weekend has been a 10 out of 10.”
Pedro Acosta (P4) – “Wrong tire today. The start was OK, the comeback was OK and the rhythm in the wet also, but when there was more water on track suddenly it was a mess and the grip was not there. It was super-difficult to understand why the first sector was so slippery and the rest was quite OK! We survived. Generally, a positive weekend but we’re quite sad. We go to the next one.”
Maverick Viñales (P5) – “One of my best results so far in a flag-to-flag, so I am more than happy. Also, I’m pleased with the feeling I get with the dry laps and the potential was very high, unfortunately when we switched to the rain tires our speed was a bit slower and we could not fight for the podium. I had edge grip but could not get the traction I wanted in a straight line and I have no explanation for that. These are the kinds of races we need to build-up and be solid. To ride the bike here was really nice.”
Takaaki Nakagami (P6) – “I’m really happy for Zarco, doing this at your home GP is a dream! He was really fast on track today. He and I made the same decision to stay out on the rain tyre, from my side I just tried to stay focused on my job – don’t crash and don’t override. It was pretty chaotic at the start with the pitting and many people changing their bikes, quite difficult to understand. I really enjoyed the race, even if it was really long! Top six is an incredible result, nothing we were expecting, but it’s a great reward for the Test Team who have been working to their maximum not just this year, but for many years. Thanks to Honda HRC for this opportunity.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio (P8) – “We tried to go with the slick, but the first part of the race was clearly wet. We were there in the first laps, then I saw some crashes in front of me, so I lost a lot of time. When everybody stopped, I was too far and I did one more lap. I think that was my mistake that didn’t allow me to achieve the Top5 today. With the wet tyres, I struggled at the beginning, by then it was better and better and I had a decent pace. I’m super happy with the result thinking about how the weekend has been. We recovered some points to the guys in front. It seems we found a base setup, so we are going to Silverstone with positive feelings.”
Lorenzo Savadori (P9) – It was a great race and a good result. It’s a shame about the huge drop in performance with the medium rain tyres, otherwise we would have been able to do something better, but in any case, some interesting things came out of this race. I’d like to thank all of Aprilia, the racing department, and the team, because we are all working at 100% to grow the bike. I would especially like to dedicate this good result to Fabrizio Borra, my physiotherapist who I have known since I was a kid, and who unfortunately has passed away.
Luca Marini (P11) – “First of all congratulations to Honda HRC and to Zarco for the result, we have all been working very hard to achieve this. Today was a big opportunity and I am honestly really frustrated because I made almost every decision in the opposite way. It’s a big pity, of course after the race it’s easy to say ‘staying on wets would have been the best’ but I made a really good start off the line and we were fast, but the weather changed back and forth. I had a good feeling once it all settled down and I was able to be quite fast, but we lost too much time with the changes. Without these mistakes Zarco showed what was possible.”
Alex Rins (P12) – “This was a race for the books. It was unbelievable: the stress, the decisions, everything! Checking the radar, rain was coming. I decided to stay out on wets originally, but then came in to change tyres, and then we had the red flag and the quick starting procedure. The problem during the race was that I came in twice, one more time than the others. On the grid, I was on wets again, and this was correct, but we were struggling, so I thought ‘Let’s try the slicks’. I decided to go in, but I had to come in again to put in wet tyres. I tried to manage the race by staying calm, because it was very delicate to find the limit on track. In the middle of the race, I tried riding different lines, and thanks to this I was able to ride 1’46s laps, and I recovered 16s to Marini. I was just missing some laps to overtake him.”
Enea Bastianini (P13) – “Crazy race! And difficult for everybody because the situation on track was on the limit. Our decision to start with the slick seemed the right one. I had the crash and mistake with Pecco [Bagnaia] and then crashed again. I was a bit lucky to be able to take the wet bike and I thought ‘let’s do the maximum’ but I had two sets of long laps; one because we did not have the limiter engaged for the pitlane. Our strategy in the end was probably not the right one but my feeling was good on a slippery track in the wet.”
Marco Bezzecchi (P14) – “This was one of those situations where anything could happen. This was my first time in these conditions with Aprilia, so I wasn’t at all sure of what to do. I usually like to put slicks on when the track is not entirely dry, but since this was my first time, I decided to stick with the rain tyres. However, the track was drying out and I stopped to put on slicks, but as soon as I did that, it started raining again. I tried to hold out, because my times weren’t that bad, but unfortunately I crashed. I picked up the bike, got back to the garage, and switched to the bike that was set up for the rain. I had the rear medium tyre on and, as soon as it came up to temp, I started doing really good laps. But then, at a certain point, it began raining harder and I lost temperature, confidence, and grip at the rear, so I started slowing down a lot.”
Franco Morbidelli (P15) – “The race was crazy! I had a decent start, and then I was with the top group trying to control what was going on. Then when I decided to to change the bike because it was raining too much, I ended up on the ground. I struggled to bring back the bike to the pit, when I did it, I went back with the rain tyres and fought my life for getting one point. We managed to do this and that’s a nice feeling to get that point after such a messy race. We struggled quite a lot during the weekend, but we were able to get back to a decent speed on wet conditions. We will need to start in a better way to reach sooner our maximum performance. In Silverstone I hope in a good weather, our speed is there and we’re confident.”
Francesco Bagnaia (P16) – “My strategy from the beginning was to stay on track no matter what. Unfortunately, I had some significant spinning at the start and had to close the throttle. Just before turn one, I was passed by several riders, and then came the contact with Enea (Bastianini). These things can happen, especially when there are riders on slick tyres and others on wets in the same race — speeds are very different. I’m sad because had I re-joined straight away, without needing to return to the pits due to the bike damage, I could have finished in the top five. But unfortunately, everything went the wrong way today.”
Brad Binder (DNF) – “Not too much to say. My race was a lot shorter than I would have liked. Very tricky to understand what tires we should have had at the beginning. We had wets, came in for slicks and I thought things were going quite well but into the last corner there was a bit more water than I expected and it just slipped away. I picked up, did my two long laps and was planning to come in but it just washed in Turn 1. It was time to have been on the wets! Sometimes things do not work out, and sorry to my team because they deserved a good result after all their efforts lately. We’ll try again in Silverstone.”
Fabio Quartararo (DNF) – “We knew that maintaining the pace needed to win or to be on the podium was going to be complicated. So, when it started to rain, I wanted to push 100% on the first laps. I think riding with slicks at the start was the right choice because we were quite fast on the opening laps. I did my first long-lap penalty, and I was pushing quite well, so I was still very close to Marc. But then it started to rain just a little bit more, and I lost the front. But we did our best. It’s a shame, but I still really enjoyed the weekend. I think we have managed to show a great pace and lap times. We gave it our maximum. The crowd were crazy. We already could see on Thursday how full the grandstands were, and the fans were supporting us all weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t win, but I can imagine how Johann is feeling. Congratulations to him!”
Miguel Oliveira (DNF) – “It was a shame not being able to finish the race, because it would have been great to get some points and in such a crazy race it would have been a plus. It was a lottery, but we knew that some rain was going to come, it was just a matter of time and see how much rain was going to fall. And it paid off. On the rain everything was better physically, not as hard and demanding, but as soon as it started to rain more I had absolutely no rear grip, it was really really hard to stay on the bike, all of a sudden the bike would snap, making things very difficult. It was a nightmare to manage that. When I crashed I was slow, and nonetheless I could not avoid it. It was a shame.”
Jack Miller (DNF) – “This one is tough to digest. We had the right strategy, I gambled, trusted the forecast and I was right: staying out there at the beginning was tough, all the bikes on slicks were coming by, but I knew there was going to be a crossover where I could have started to recover. I was trying to nurse it and do all the right things, It hurts, because I don‘t understand what went on. It had started to rain a little more, like I was hoping, came to the last corner, did the same thing as the laps before but I lost it, had an highside and that was it. Don‘t know if it was because of bumps or different patches of asphalt, but I am devastated because we had done everything right. I am gutted for the team, also considering that Johann at that time was behind me.”
Alex Marquez (DNF) – “On one hand, we were quick in every condition, on a track where we haven’t performed too well before. The negative side is that we crashed twice, and the second one could have been avoided. It would have been important to score points anyway, even a few, but we couldn’t get the job done. Too bad, because it could have been an excellent weekend.”
