When Pol Espargaró arrived at Honda, it was to do something different and he hoped for better than the injured captain Marc Marquez. But the former KTM did not take advantage of the power vacuum, so much so that the return of the King brought him into line. The new recruit has seen what the eight-time World Champion can do on one of his favorite terrains with an RC213V. So, I swear, he's going to copy...
In 30 rounds, Pol Espargaro dropped almost 15 seconds on his teammate, winner of the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring Marc Marquez. A price generally applied to its predecessors, who even charged more. But then, the eight-time World Champion was in full possession of his means. A lesson taken and assimilated since the tenth place that Pol Espargaro reproduces as follows: “ you need to reset and start in Holland with a more similar framework to Marc to understand how he does it, what he does and from there do the most. You have to be self-critical, today I wasn't fast enough ».
So the way forward from now on is this. “ From now on, I'm going to copy Marc's settings and his chassis, because he uses another one than ours, and I'm going to copy his lines. So far we weren't very far behind in pace or fastest lap, but in this race he took a step forward. I'm happy for him and all the guys who worked so hard. Marc showed today what the performance of this bike is, and I need to be at that level, and the only way to do that is to copy his settings, his bike and his chassis as early as possible, then follow his lines. From this moment on there will be no more excuses ».
Pol Espargaro: “I don’t think I’ve ever finished 14 seconds behind my teammate in my life”
Pol Espargaro is explained on this different chassis thus mentioned: “ we don't have the same chassis. I was following my trajectory, because I felt like I was doing well, until today's race. In the hunt for the time, it wasn't bad, it was fast, but after today's result... it's not that Marc wins because of the bike, what I'm saying is that for understand what it does, I need to use the exact same bike. So I will understand what it does and how I have to carry this bike 100%. Today was the first day I finished furthest from my teammate, I don't think I've ever finished 14 seconds from my partner in my life, and it opened my eyes. I have to work harder and copy what he does, because it showed me that this bike can win, and I am not capable of it ».
He ends by hurting himself a little more: “ I had a bad race, I'm not happy with the result or the pace. I suffered a lot, it's the first time that in a race with the Honda, I couldn't be close to my pace in practice. I was hoping for a good race, but the start was a mess and I couldn't overtake. I'm super disappointed. I suffered a lot in general, in addition, being behind so many riders the front tire became very hot. And the three crashes this weekend didn't help either. I lost a lot of confidence in the fast corners. It was a bad Sunday, honestly I can't take anything positive out of it ».
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Credit classification motogp.com
