For Pol Espargaró, this weekend in Indonesia was not an easy task. Friday didn't go as he would have liked, after finishing eleventh again at the gates of Q2, then a small mistake while doing a good Sprint cost him many positions on Saturday. On top of that, the Spaniard had not yet found the ideal way to feel comfortable on his GASGAS RC16, but the work done by his Tech3 team during the night proved effective. After feeling a lot of positives during his morning warm-up session, he finished thirteenth with a best time of 1'31.701 (+0.658). Then the race happened...
After these improvements there was hope for the main race on Sunday afternoon. When the lights went out at 15:00 p.m. local time at the packed Mandalika circuit, the number 44 got off to a good start, moving up from 16th to 10th in one lap to find himself just behind his compatriot from PiererMobility, Jack Miller. The feeling on the bike was positive, but unfortunately he crashed on the second lap, while trying to do more. Disappointing result for Pol Espargaro, but he will go to Phillip Island with the positives of the weekend because he has found good directions for the next races.
Pol Espargaro commented : " I'm obviously not happy after falling so early in the race, but I think we can take something positive from this weekend ". He adds : " I had a lot of trouble from the start on Friday and the sensations with the bike were not good. It didn't work the way I wanted. We made a lot of changes overnight and during the warm-up the bike performed as I wanted, we were close to the top 10 this morning ».
Pol Espargaro: “ my first two rounds were really good »
« In the race, my first two laps were really good, I was able to regain a lot of positions and pass fast guys, which proves that the bike runs well. The fall is a shame, but it is important for the next races to finally have good feedback because we understand where the good points are » finished the teammate of a Augusto Fernandez who was not more successful.
His team manager Nicolas Goyon added : " We had hopes for Pol Espargaró after the changes made to his bike, which proved effective as he gave us good feedback. In the race, he got off to a very good start and recovered many positions from his 16th place, but like many drivers today, he was betrayed by his front tire ».
He concludes : " two falls, not the way we wanted to end our Indonesian campaign, but there were some positives this weekend, so we'll build on that for the next round, as we'll now head to Phillip Island. We expect quite cold conditions, so it will be a different challenge! See you in Australia! ».
MotoGP race results Indonesia GP
MotoGP General Ranking
Credit classification motogp.com
