Pol Espargaró completed an excellent first day at the Dutch Grand Prix, dominating the first free practice of the day for many minutes, in which, in addition to setting the second best lap, he exhibited a very good pace without changing tires throughout the session.
“It’s the only training I’ve enjoyed since I’ve been at Honda, and seeing that you spend time with a used tire while the other riders of the brand suffered, that makes you feel good and relieved,” explained Pol.
“These moments are the ones that comfort you, you see that you are fast, when everything is in line I am as fast as the others or more. These moments give you life and are important turning points when things are not going your way. FP1 has left me with a very good taste in my mouth, an important training session, but I hope to be able to do better the rest of the weekend”, he added.
A performance that the Catalan cataloged as absolutely real.
“One hundred percent real, track in perfect condition and all the drivers on the same tyres, no one was conditioned by the tyres, the time was fast, but the pace too. It’s the most real thing I’ve done so far and the best time. I have gone faster other times, but with new rubber and at the limit, it has been a very good training session, very complete and with different track conditions. I am really very satisfied”.
Pol suffered a minor crash in FP2, but it prevented him from working with new parts that he had scheduled to mount.
“The temperature of the front tire was at the limit. It rained a lot. I wasn’t pushing because I didn’t want to lose the feeling of the morning, but when I did a slow lap to start pushing, the tire got cold and in the first left-hand corner I crashed. Silly fall that will not condition me, “he said. “The pity is that I have not been able to try things that I had prepared.”
Pol’s crash came just shortly after Marc Márquez, his teammate, suffered a spectacular overhand.
“It seems that it is the only bike that crashes so much, the Ducati and the Yamaha are fast and they don’t crash as much. It’s a statistical fact that we Honda riders crash more than the rest of the factories, that’s right, but if that’s what it takes to go fast I’m going to keep crashing. For me it is not a problem, I fall and I get up. If I don’t hurt myself, it’s a formality. I feel sorry for the mechanics, otherwise it’s not something that worries me too much”, he valued.
The one from Granollers (Barcelona) said on Thursday that he was going to copy Marc Márquez’s bike.
“I couldn’t ride the bike like Marc’s because I was testing a new chassis. In the end I decided to do all the training with my bike, the one I know, and try the new one in FP2, but it started to rain and I couldn’t. Let’s see if we can do it tomorrow in FP3”, settled Polyccio .
The photos of Pol Espargaró at the 2021 MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
