This Sunday, November 7, 2021, Pol Espargaro answered questions from journalists from the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão, at the end of the second day of the Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve.
We went to listen (via teleconferencing software) to the words of the Spanish driver, who came in sixth position on Sunday in Portugal.
As usual, we report here the words of Pol Espargaro without the slightest formatting.
Pol, to what extent did going wide with Iker Lecuona compromise your race? You showed a very solid pace at the end of the event, but it is obvious that you had gone too low in the hierarchy after this mistake to aim for a better result...
« It's true that it compromised everything, because I was really strong and I really thought I could fight for the podium. It was the first time I tried the hard rear tire, and I was really starting to gain a lot of confidence with it during the race. »
« But today Iker was electrified: He is almost at the end of his career in MotoGP, he is having a good weekend, and today he was much too excited and I paid the price. I lost contact with him, as well as with the two Ducati satellites that were riding with me, but also with Fabio Quartararo. »
« Four riders overtook me in the blink of an eye, and then it wasn't easy to get back into rhythm because Fabio crashed, Iker went wide, etc. But overall the race was good. I was able to be fast and strong, and this has a certain impact on the championship in the end, in the sense that I am now tenth in the standings, and that I can aim for eighth place if I do well at
Valence. »
Did the hard tire ultimately meet your expectations?
« It more than met my expectations! The only problem with this eraser is that it takes more time to clearly identify the place where you can attack. Throughout the weekend, I was only able to try it on one lap. Takaaki Nakagami tried it this morning and did a few laps with it, and Álex Márquez also used it yesterday for seven or eight laps. »
« For my part, I started the race by taking a bit of a leap into the unknown. So the first few rounds were scary. I took a few laps to get to grips with this rubber, and after a while I told myself that it was good and that I could attack, and straight away I was fast. »
Why didn't you try it earlier in the weekend?
« The technicians at Michelin actually told us that this was not a tire that would be suitable. We were made to understand that this one was too hard for us. But who knows why, I tried it and it worked wonderfully. You know, what Álex Márquez did this weekend is very good, not only for him in terms of pure results, but also for us because he encouraged us all to use the hard, and thanks to that we all performed well . »
It must be difficult to see clearly when it comes to tires if you are told that a specification does not work for you when in the end it does…
« Yes it is difficult. When you look at the different components available to you on paper, you may be deceived by the different names. For example, we would tend to think that the hard tire is difficult to heat up, but in fact given that at the beginning it tends to slip, the temperature rises quite quickly due to friction. »
« These are things that are difficult to have spontaneously in mind, but yet in concrete terms this is what happens once you put on this or that rubber. I'm not saying that this is always the case, the hard tire is generally much more difficult to warm up than the soft or medium, but here that was not the case and on the contrary we were rather quick, this which explains our good performance in the race. »
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