The Repsol Honda rider closed the first day in Misano with the sixth fastest time of the day ( 1:33.019 ) and claimed to have felt good on the RC213V in dry conditions, recalling a bit the sensations of the Le Mans and Silverstone weekend , his best performances since joining HRC.
“In the dry we went quite well. The sensations were good. We don’t need the rain. Although the sun comes out, it’s not very hot, we haven’t reached 30 degrees”, introduced the Spanish runner.
Espargaró has always been a fast rider in wet conditions, but this Friday, with a dry session and another in the rain, he was better in the first.
“In the wet I’m usually fast, but today it didn’t go so well in the afternoon, but I’m not too worried because I didn’t have the right tyre. I think that in both conditions we can be competitive”.
The Silverstone, dry but with low temperatures, Pol achieved pole position.
“Tomorrow, Saturday, in FP3 it looks like it’s not going to rain. We are going to have dry conditions to get through to Q2. In the afternoon, in qualifying it does seem that it will be wet, so it will be a difficult day”, he pointed out.
The good performance in the British Grand Prix , pole position and sixth in the race, shows that if the conditions are right, the Catalan can go fast on the Honda.
“When you do it well once you break a wall and you think that when you have what you need on the bike you are the same or faster than the others”, he reflects.
“When everything is favorable we go fast, and the sensations I have had here remind me of what I had at Silverstone: there is grip in the dry, and that allows me to have fun driving. In addition, it is a physical circuit and I like that. In Aragón I didn’t even get tired during the race due to the lack of grip there was”, he acknowledged.
“Today reminded me a bit of Le Mans and Silverstone in terms of sensations. It’s been a good day. It was difficult for me to start, but on the second start in FP1 we made a set-up change and I was surprised because I went fast, I had fun, despite not having the front tire that I touched”.
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Looking ahead to Sunday, the forecasts are not very clear regarding the weather.
“I would like the race to be dry, unlike Aragón where the rain would have helped us”, he lamented.
“The pending subject is to be fast when we don’t have everything in our favour. When there is a lot of traction I am able to get a little bit more than the rest, but that only happens with new asphalt or very soft tires, and normally we run with a lot of temperature and on old asphalt. We have to work on that, I’m the one with the least experience at Honda. I try to learn all the tricks of the bike, but it’s not easy”, settled the boy from Granollers.
