After two disappointing rounds at home in Catalonia and more recently at Misano with two DNFs, Espargaro Pol was looking to bounce back in India, on the new Buddh MotoGP circuit, where everything was possible for everyone.
The GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 driver had no luck in the Sprint, where he was knocked to the ground by Stefan Bradl at the start of the race, but Sunday was another day and another chance to score points.
Luca marini being injured, Pol Espargaro started from eighteenth place on the starting grid. When the lights went out, he got off to a good start, moving up to P12 behind Takaaki Nakagami in a single turn. He lost a position to Fabio Di Giannantonio on the next lap, but settled into his rhythm and set his best lap on the fourth lap, in 1'45.964 (+0.936 sec compared to the fastest lap of the day). By lap 6 he was eleventh, fighting as hard as he could against the difficult conditions, but he ended up losing a few positions as his pace began to falter. Fourteenth, he undertook some great battles with his former teammate Marc Marquez, entertaining to watch but requiring all one's strength, before having to bow down to Raul fernandez and finally Miguel Oliveira. With a late fall of Fabio DiGiannantonio, he took the checkered flag in P13, and he brought three points to his team after one of the most difficult races of his career. A welcome result at a time when his name seems to be resonating in the Mattighofen offices…
Espargaro Pol : “It was one of the hardest races of my career, if not the hardest. It was very hot. The weekend was very difficult, and I'm not really satisfied with the result, but we managed to finish the race in the points, with my current physical condition, and that's at least a positive point, promising for the team. 'future. We keep moving forward, the next race is Motegi, and it's a circuit that I like. »
Nicolas Goyon, Team manager: “Pol Espargaro's goal was to finish the race, which he managed to do with a thirteenth place, even though he experienced one of the most difficult races of his career, physically. He realized that his body was not yet ready for these extreme conditions. So the whole team would like to thank him for the enormous effort he made today, because we know it was very difficult for him here. »
MotoGP Indian Grand Prix Results at Buddh:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
