MotoGP | Pol Espargaro on the new KTM: “It’s significant to be able to keep up with the others”

Saturday was better than Friday for Pol Espargaro in the Austrian Grand Prix. After problems with the new KTM he is testing at the Red Bull Ring, the Spaniard was able to complete a more competitive day to the point of being the surprise of Saturday considering his role as a wild card.

The Granollers rider managed to make the cut in Q1 ahead of one of his brand mates, Pedro Acosta. Espargaro then had a very competitive Q2, in which he even made it to the second row on the starting grid. However, a fall at the end of qualifying relegated him to tenth position, still a better result than Brad Binder, 12th. He was able to finish the Sprint in ninth position, behind Miller, fifth, and Binder, seventh. But he finished once again ahead of the “Tiburon”.

All this despite struggling with problems on the new RC16 that continue to arise during the race weekend, as he confessed to the media after the Sprint: “It went much better than Saturday, but even so… Things happen during a race weekend that I don’t control or that we didn’t expect. For example, the front tire pressure went up, I didn’t know how to manage it during the race, because I’m not used to it happening, in testing I’m alone. There are no pressure changes, no turbulence, no riders falling or overtaking you.”

“Managing everything is very complicated, we also had some problems with the dashboard, which drove us a bit crazy. But we gathered some information and on Sunday, with more experience, I think it will go a bit better. I have some speed, I was able to prepare the weekend better thanks to the tests, even though we didn’t run a lot on Friday, things didn’t go badly on Saturday. I think that without the crash in Q2 we could have been on the second row, things would have gone a bit better, especially with the front tyre problem,” he explained.

Pol Espargaro was asked if he thinks that with his current level he could opt to return to the grid. However, the Spaniard preferred to discard the idea rather than embrace it, given that he feels good about his life outside of MotoGP: “You have to want it, I don’t know if I want it. When you go to the track and go back to training, you realise the stress, the anxiety and the risk that these guys run. From the outside you can’t see it, you can try to empathise a bit, imagine what they feel. But I think that people aren’t aware of the risk they run and the stress they are subjected to every day. It’s huge and it’s not healthy. Before I didn’t notice it, now that I’m out I feel it”.

Finally, #44 highlighted the good level that the new RC16 seems to have, relying above all on him, who was competitive without having the best pace due to the fact that he is no longer a regular rider: “On Saturday, on the flying lap I had many opportunities to be the fastest KTM. The fastest lap I did in the tests was 28.3, so I had some margin. The new bike is very fast, and to think that I don’t have the speed of these riders. I think that we need to fix it, put it on and fix the problems that have arisen… But if I, without the speed that the others have, went so well, I managed to keep up with the others, then it is significant”, he concluded.