Pol Espargaró: “It was better than we expected”

BARCELONA, June 3 (Royals Blue) –

The MotoGP rider Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) stated after the first two free practice sessions of the Catalunya Grand Prix, which takes place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, that they have gone “better than expected” in terms of pace of lap on race tires.

“With the race tire we are quite good, we have been able to put ourselves at the top of the time table. Honestly, it is better than we expected. When we have mounted the soft tire, we have not been able to improve as much as the others , so we have to work a little at night,” he said in statements provided by the team.

The youngest of the Espargaró, who was 835 thousandths off the best time of the day set by his brother Aleix (Aprilia), recognized that they stayed close to the ‘Top 10’. “I think we can get through it tomorrow, we will have to see what the conditions are like and what everyone does. I am quite positive about our situation for the race, tomorrow we have to position ourselves in the first three rows of the grid,” he said.

For his part, the test driver Stefan Bradl, who replaced Marc Márquez in his absence after undergoing surgery, finished 23rd, 1.6 seconds off the best time of the day, set by Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia).

“Today was about riding the bike and getting back into race mode, when you have to give it your all at the moment. It’s been a good day because we’ve been able to find some improvements between this morning and this afternoon. We’re also here testing a few things, so which is already a very busy Grand Prix. We are building, being faster, hopefully we can take another step tomorrow.”