Pol Espargaró: "I feel that the bike is ready for the first race"

February 12, 2022

The man from Granollers finished the second day of pre-season training in Indonesia with the eighth fastest time, stopping the clock at 1:31.605, just over three tenths off the best time of the day, which was left by Luca Marini at 1:31.289.

Pol Espargaró, who faces his second season riding the Honda RC213V , suffered a lot last year in the tests prior to the start of the course, for not knowing the bike or having references on the track due to Marc Márquez being out.

This year, for the youngest of the Espargarós, things seem to have taken a more positive turn, especially in part due to the character of the new Japanese bike, but also due to having more experience in the team and Marc’s data to compare.

“It has been a good day, improving a little more”, Pol introduced his summary at the end of the day.

Espargaró never fully owned the Honda last year, only at the end of the course did he begin to ride well and feel comfortable.

“It is the first time that I feel that the bike is ready for the first race, last year in preseason I did not have that feeling at any time and I thought that we would be far away in the first race,” he explained this Saturday.

“But now I really feel that the bike is there, that it is ready,” he stressed.

Pol tried one last attack on time in the final part of practice to improve his time, which did not go as expected.

“After one lap I made some mistakes and we also have a problem with the front brake that we have to solve tomorrow,” was the argument.

“But in the ideal time , if we put it all together, we are second, that this last year cost us a lot, and in the race pace if we have not been the best, we are very close”, he valued.

For Espargaró , the step forward with the new bike is obvious, above all because it allows him to be convinced that he can achieve results.

“It is important to be convinced that we can start the season with a good performance and I think the bike is ready to do so,” he concluded.