MotoGP Silverstone J3 Pol Espargaró (Honda/14): "I finished 14th even though I was 5 seconds faster than last year over the race distance"

Pol Espargaró is doing his best against bad luck within a Repsol Honda team where he is counting the days until the end of this season, synonymous with the end of his lease. Because the new RC213V is definitively jettisoned to the point that it is nothing more than a laboratory to reveal the outline of the 2023 version, on which Marc Marquez will keep an eye. At Silverstone, however, the man who fell like his brother Aleix during testing, but less violently, recalls some chronometric truths which say a lot about the situation of the world's leading manufacturer who actually has enough to lose his Latin...

Pol Espargaro made his comeback in the final part of the season which should also be his end of the game with Honda. Silverstone, he was entitled to his fall which is part of the daily life of a driver on an RC213V, he experienced qualifying all the more painful as he had started from pole position in the British Grand Prix of last year, but he still had fun in the race with his famous and therefore unfortunate companion Taka Nakagami. He brings back the two points for 14th place, which leaves the championship still the same Marc Marquez as best in the provisional general classification, although he has not ridden a motorcycle since Mugello at the end of May...

Without laughing, the Spaniard commented: “ it was nice, I really liked it ". He even explains: “ my start was very bad, after the first lap I was 20th. I only picked up the pace slowly and was able to progress up to 14th position. Even though I was a little faster than Taka, I couldn't pass him. My pace wasn't that bad, but I lost six seconds in the first three laps because of my 18th starting position ».

**Pol Espargaro: “ it is unacceptable that we lose 7 seconds in 17 laps and 1,5 seconds in qualifying over one lap«**

Then he does the math: “ in the remaining 17 laps I lost 7 seconds, the pace was much better than expected. It's unacceptable that we lose 7 seconds in 17 laps and 1,5 seconds in qualifying over one lap, we have to control that, it kills our race strategy. We had the pace for posts 6 to 8 », is convinced the youngest I will espargaro. " But what are you going to do when you are 20th in the first round? We stumble because we don't generate the same grip as others with the same tires. We can't complain about the tires, we need to improve our bike. At least we were able to improve our braking significantly for the race, which makes me happier ».

Then he ends with this other truth facing the hourglass: “ I finished 14th even though I was 5 seconds faster than last year over the race distance. We proved that the bike was faster than last year, but the others have improved much more than us. We are always late ". This shows how quickly the machines evolve from one season to the next in MotoGP.