Sepang.- In his second season with the official Honda team, Pol Espargaró faces in these early stages of the season the need to achieve good results in order to be eligible for renewal, all while he has to finish tuning a completely new motorcycle, with the difficulty that this entails.
“On Saturday we tried a lot of things but we stayed away. This Sunday morning we tried a fast lap and we were only two tenths off the lead, which if we take into account that the bike is new, it’s very good”, Pol explained. who nailed the time in 1.58.420, just 0.289 from the reference record, left by Enea Bastianini (1.58.131), below the track record.
In addition to being happy with the performance of the RC213V 2022 on a dry lap, Espargaró was able to check the improvement in pace and on long runs.
“We did a long run of 11 laps, and I was fast. I would have started like this. I don’t want to say that we are ready for Qatar, but we are fine,” was the Catalan’s assessment.
Honda has introduced a true revolution in the concept of the new motorcycle, with many innovations, not only at the engine level.
“The bike is not perfect, we have to improve it. I still can’t get the most out of the bike. The front part is much better, with this bike we will certainly crash less,” he said.
One of the aspects that Honda has worked on is the new aerodynamics, and some new appendages in the double-wing fairing.
“It was clear that we needed to make this bike safer, and with that we also make it faster. Obviously, with more grip at the rear, the front end becomes a bit lighter, but that’s why we used the wings,” said the man from Granollers.
