Since Pol Espargaró got on the Honda RC213V, he has only experienced phases of progress which have given him great morale. But this Saturday, the day of qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix at Losail, he marked time for the first time. And in this case, he always turns out to be nervous, entering into a spiral that draws him to the bottom. A bad slope which caused him to slip to twelfth place on the starting grid. More than a second from pole position and behind another Honda rider named Nakagami. So, obviously, he's not very happy...
Add to this that in the fratricidal struggle, literally, he sees his elder Aleix ahead of him since ranked eighth with theAprilia. Pol I will espargaro had these words after his Saturday near Doha: “ I am not happy. Friday, the feeling was good. Unfortunately, I don't know why we had problems for a long time and we lost our way. Then in Q2, it was too late ».
« With the second tire things went better in Q2, I had changed something. I am the second best Honda rider, but I am still far from Takaaki Nakagami. He had a good time, we should be able to do it too. I was a little confused in FP4, it went very badly. I could barely slow the bike down. So we changed something. It went better in the time chase, that's good. I achieved almost two identical lap times, with a difference of a thousandth. We will be stronger in the race ».
Pol Espargaro: “the Ducati will not be as fast as in qualifying”
The Catalan admits: “ we tried different tires. I continue to learn. Sometimes I apply too much pressure and make a mistake. This makes me nervous, and then I make another mistake. Saturday just wasn't a good day. We should have been in the middle of 1'53, but it was too late by then. Sometimes you think too much ».
The World Champion Moto2 of 2013 ends: “ I just need to be a little calmer at first. If I can do these first few laps of the race well, I'll be in a good position. We will do another check in the warm-up with a full tank. In the race, the Ducati will not be as fast as in qualifying. I feel ready for a good race myself. The warm-up will be really very important to check the times with the worn tire. But I have a good feeling, I'm going to try everything ».
MotoGP Qatar 1 J2: times
Credit rankings: MotoGP.com
