Pol Espargaró puts his foot down and will not go ahead with the Dutch Grand Prix. The pilot explained on Friday, at the end of the first day, that he felt unbearable pain due “to a strong contracture. I have nothing broken but I have to force other parts of the body to be able to drive and that is causing me other injuries and intense pain I can’t breathe when I’m on the bike,” he said.
“I am going to continue with the recovery and taking anti-inflammatories, to see if on Saturday morning I have improved a little and I can go out on the track”, something that has not happened.
In an official note, Repsol Honda explained the decision not to continue with the Grand Prix.
“Since suffering his fall in Free Practice 1 of the German GP, Pol Espargaró has done his best to recover and be fit to race in Assen. After Free Practice 2 on Friday, Espargaró was still in severe pain and discomfort. Consequently, he feels incapable of racing a MotoGP bike and, together with the Repsol Honda team, has chosen not to participate in the race,” explains Honda.
“The Repsol Honda Team looks forward to welcoming Pol Espargaró in top form at Silverstone after the summer break. Stefan Bradl will continue to contest the Dutch GP with the Repsol Honda Team,” referring to Marc Márquez’s replacement.
With this bad news, the official HRC team will once again take part in a premier class grand prix without any of its official drivers, as happened at last year’s Valencia event, the last of the season.
In addition to Bradl, Honda will participate in this Sunday’s race with Alex Márquez and Takaaki Nakagami with the LCR team and the objective of scoring points, to leave behind the German Grand Prix, where the Japanese manufacturer was left without scoring for the first time in 40 years in the queen class.
