Fourteenth on the first day by one second and thirteenth this Sunday by eight tenths while he had concluded his tests at Sepang in seventh position just 26 hundredths behind the fastest, one might think Pol Espargaró disappointed with his performance so far in Qatar … No way !
On the contrary, the KTM spearhead declares himself very satisfied with his pace on the Losail circuit and, to understand it, the Catalan rider says that we must remember the times he achieved there last year.
He is then not talking about his best timed lap but about his race pace, in 1'56.5 last winter compared to 1'55.5 this Sunday.
Once this clarification was achieved, the KTM official said: “I am very happy after the second day here in Qatar. Today was one of the most important days because for the first time we rode a little more than half a race distance with this new bike. It went very well, so I'm very happy. It was about seeing how the grip deteriorates after a few laps, what sensations I had, if it would affect our bike. In the end, it was just what we expected. It feels good because we are running with regular times. We are almost a second per lap faster compared to last year: it's crazy, it's pretty fast! I think the Yamaha riders are a bit faster than us, and I would say they are in the first group with Suzuki. But I think we are in the group with the Ducati factory riders. I'm happy, I think we improved a lot where we needed it most, which was in the pace of the race. It was a positive day. So I'm confident, it feels good, and we'll try to find out tomorrow what speed we have on a lap. We're going to try for some sort of qualifying time because most of the guys have already done that today. »
MotoGP Test Qatar J2 ranking: times
Credit ranking: MotoGP.com
