MotoGP Sepang Test J1 Pol Espargaró (8/KTM): “The chassis and engine are better”

During the three-day shakedown that took place earlier this week, Pol Espargaró set the best time in 1'59.444 ahead of his brother Aleix (Aprilia) in 1'59.622, 0.178 behind, Miguel Oliveira (KTM) in 1'59.748, at 0.304, and Dani Pedrosa (KTM) in 1'59.841 at 0.397. Pol therefore arrived this Monday with a good pace, facing the permanent riders of Honda, Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki who had not yet taken a turn in MotoGP this year (thanks to the concessions granted to KTM and Aprilia).

On this first day, the leader of the KTM team achieved the eighth time in 1'59.536, 0.591 behind the leader fabio quartararo and 0.109 from seventh, his brother Aleix on the new Aprilia. Pol completed a total of 48 laps, with his best performance established during the twenty-fourth.

The fastest KTM during last year's Sepang winter testing clocked a 1'59.640 driven by Johann zarco (seventeenth). Then during the Malaysian Grand Prix, the best qualified was that of Pol Espargaró who was positioned 15th on the grid in 1'59.812. The best time of a KTM in the race was the 13th in 2'00.648, to the credit of Pol.

According to Pol I will espargaro , “The important thing is not the timesheet. I feel like I've been here for a month today! It was worse the first two days. From that point of view, I'm doing pretty well. »

“We have come here more often than the others, we have a lot of data, but it is clear that tomorrow some will be even faster. Michelin brought soft tires. »

“The boys will definitely be in the 1'57 range by then. I hope we will be faster too. »

“We don’t have a completely new motorcycle. We take things quite slowly and install the new parts gradually. It is safer to improve the whole. »

“We are close to last year's best time here. We are much better than last year, we were already three tenths faster at shakedown. We are certainly more competitive than ever here. »

“In general, we are still playing a lot with the tuning with the new tire. We will also work a little more on tire wear tomorrow. The chassis and engine are better. »

“We've spent four days here so far and we haven't had time to test the new fins yet. It also shows everything we've done over the past four days. I still need to change about 20% of the assembly. »

“It's all about grip, being able to open the throttle more and brake later than the others. This is the key to the best lap times in MotoGP. We also took a step forward with the engine. Power comes more easily. The motorcycle is also easier to decelerate. »

“Our aero package is also very good. The new tires aren't as different as everyone says. OK, maybe Yamaha has more corner speed and Honda can accelerate better. But these are not big things. »

 

MotoGP Test Sepang J1: times

 

Credit ranking: MotoGP.com

Reference times:

Test record: 1'58.239 by Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) in February 2019

Official testing record: 1'58.303 by Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) in 2019

Lap record: 1'59.661 by Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in 2019

 

Photos © Polarity Photo for KTM