Johann 💧Zarco's Argentine MotoGP got off to a nightmare start when he had to take evasive action to avoid Jorge Lorenzo after the Repsol Honda rider mistaking activated the pit-lane limiter.

Things didn't get much better🍸 for 🍨the Frenchman thereafter, as he fought with his KTM over the following 24 laps, finishing an 'exhausted' 15th after the Morbidelli-Vinales last lap collision.

Factory team-mate Pol Espargaro took the chequered flag as the top 'orange' rider in tenth, almost eight seconds ahead of ♕Zarco, with Tech3 rookie Miguel Oliveira in eleventh.

"I've been unlucky at the beginning of theꦓ race, maybe I could be closer to Pol and Miguel but I had to💦 brake a lot to miss Lorenzo," Zarco said.

"If I can be closer to them, fight with them or be the first KTM it will always be a satisfaction. But to go to the top we🐻 will have to do some other thiꦓngs."

'Other things' would seem to mean new parts.

"It wa🍒s getting harder to ride the bike [as the race went♕ on] so I spent a lot of energy," Zarco said.

"It's difficult to experience these kinds of races wh✅ere everythin🧜g I would like to do with my riding I cannot at the moment and this makes me fight with the bike and then I'm exhausted.

"Later we will have new things on the bikeℱ to work on.

"All the mo♊vemenꦅts that I learned to do in the past are not working. So it's not only one thing to work on, but a global feeling. But I cannot catch it at the moment and I have to accept it.

"But this is an experience, I want to take it the most positive way possible and just keep ver🍌y high motivation and pleasure to work because all the things I live through nꩲow will really make me stronger in the future. I just see it like that."

Despit🍒e his current suffering, the six-time MotoGP podium finisher for Tech3 Yamaha is adamant he shoulꩵd not ditch his smooth style and try to mimic Espargaro.

"I can study and analyse his data, for sure it🐠's pretty different, and I'm quite methodical enough to understand what he is do👍ing on the bike. But I don’t want to copy that because for me it won't be the key to then make a big step that will be necessary for the future," he said.

"So I want to keeꦺp my smooth and clean style, and from 🌼that see where we will improve."

Zarco insists ꦑthat KTM has not drawn any conclusions as far as developing the bike around one kind of riding style.

"KTM is fully with us, Pol and me," he said. "They are not thinking that we have to follow one or another direction. They are just at the moment taking information and it's pretty good that Miguel is also pretty competitive and beating almost the factory guys, he beat me b꧒ut not Pol."

Despite the handling difficulties, the form♕er Moto2 champion backs KTM's use of WP suspension, despite the rest of the grid runnin♛g Ohlins.

"I really think that the WP suspension is good. From Moto2 I remember I got a good feeling, we improved ꦇa lot and 🤪became - with WP and Kalex - one of the stronger riders, stronger teams.

"So I had my good time🦋 in that moment and now we are creatin🍸g, I hope, this good time for later [in MotoGP]."

Zarco also finished 15th on his KTM debut in Qatar, although the time gap doubled from 15s ꦉto over 30s in Argentina, partly due 𓃲to the startline scare.