Pol Espargaró: "I have nothing to lose, I will risk to be ahead"

November 6, 2021

Portimao.- On Pol Espargaró’s mind was the disastrous weekend of the Portuguese Grand Prix , held in April at this same circuit, in which he could not be fast at any time and, to make matters worse, he had to abandon the race at the first of change.

But the Honda rider has been on the rise for a few races and after the podium achieved a fortnight ago in Misano , he no longer sees anything impossible.

“I am happy, this was a circuit where I came to suffer and I am suffering, it is not being as good as Misano, but I am in the second row even having made a mistake on the fastest lap. But being between the first two rows means that we are in the fight. Obviously there are riders who have a better pace than us, but being in front makes the first laps easier, especially on a narrow circuit like this, where they can take you a little longer. That’s why I’m satisfied”, explained the HRC rider.

Despite this, Pol does not want to build castles in the air and remains cautious about his options in the race.

“Facing the race it is complicated, first we have to decide the tire that we are going to use and I have the impression that we are going to wait a bit with the rear tire since we have not been able to test it due to the crash in FP4 , which has prevented us from doing more laps. I’m going to go out to the race without knowing if the rear tire is the right one and that doesn’t make me calm, I don’t like that feeling of lack of control”.

The objective is not to drop from the first ones at the beginning, to wait for the improvement that the RC213V usually offers with the passage of laps.

“Being in the second row we have more options to be in the front positions and fight for the fast drivers, it will be a much more placid race than fighting at the back, everything is much simpler”.

“This is not a circuit in which I am personally very fast, it has never been easy for me, especially in April when we came this year, I had it marked as a tough weekend and so far all the practices have gone well, but tomorrow is when the points are given and we are trying to fight for some things, like being in the top ten, which is not much, but given the circumstances I want to finish the year in the best possible way”.

With four Ducati and Joan Mir in front, and with Fabio Quartararo behind but with the pace to get there, the fight for the top spot will be very expensive this Sunday.

“Without a doubt, it is expensive to fight for the podium on all circuits, but especially here with the Ducati so far ahead. That only they and the Suzuki have beaten us is something positive. I’m aware of the riders ahead of us and I’m going to have to risk a lot to be ahead with them at the start, but I’m convinced that I’m going to fight, there’s no other way, and I’m going to try to be ahead, I don’t have much to lose and I’m going to risk and wait for mistakes from others, it will be a complicated race with the front end for everyone, there may be mistakes”, settled the Vallesan.