Johann Zarco made a strong start to free practice at the Japanese MotoGP onไ Friday as the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider hailed a ‘good day’ in the Far East.

Zarco went third fastest in F🐻P1 in the dry with a best time of 1m 45.483s, which was 0.125s back on Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

In 🐬a dam🐷p FP2 in the afternoon, Zarco was fifth quickest on the M1 and felt relaxed on the bike.

“It has been a very good first day in Japan, I’m happy. In🎀 the dry conditions, I got a strong pace immediately and this helped me a lot to relax🏅 myself and do some good work,” he said.

“In the afternoon, the conditions were tricky after some rain, therefore I was lucky to have been fast in FP1. It was not full wet, but we had some patches on the 🧸track. I did laps in both conditions with the rain tyres and the slick and in both c💙ases I had a good control of the bike.

“Now I’m lဣooking forward to tomorrow, to show a fast pace again and be competꦇitive for the qualifying.

"The main targ♌et this weekend is to beat Cal and Danilo, we are all together in the championship, so if I can be faster than them here I must take the opportunity."

Team-mate Hafizh Syahrin was le🍸arning the Twin Ring Motegi circuit on the Yamaha for the first time and ended FP1 in 24th place, improving to sixth in the tricky conditions in FP2.

He said: “During this first day, I didn’t do many laps in the dry, but I felt really good with the bike. In the last run this morning, we had some small issue with the brakes, therefꦿore we couldn’t continue improving and I stoppe⛄d the last run.

“Later in FP2, I had very gooꦐd sensations, but it wasn’t enough time to use the dry time really well. Overall, I have a great feeling and I’m convinced that we can lower our lap time tomorrow morning.”