Espargaro saves HRC’s blushes
New boy Pol Espargaro saves HRC blushes after potentially disastrous, crash-filled test in Qatar
Pol Espargaro is settling in nicely to his new surroundings at Repsol Honda and to his new race tool, the uncompromising RC213V. While 10th overall isn’t what you might expect from Honda, Espargaro was just 0.7s off Jack Miller’s record-breaking pace and was also the fastest Honda rider. Espargaro’s long runs were also impressive. During a 13-lap stint he recorded high 1:54s to low 1:55s. Earlier on Espargaro completed a shorter seven-lap run with each lap coming in between 1:54.4 and 1:54.7. That’s great consistency on a bike that he’s only ridden for four days. Still, Espargaro acknowledged the need for more time and work to find the limit on different tyres. Overall, though, he’s happy. “The timing is coming, the rhythm is coming. I cannot say I’m ready to fight for something great in the first race, but I’m close to it. But it’s just the beginning, I need to work with the team and to know the bike a little more. If we do everything good and no injuries come, it can be a good year for us.” Of course, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Espargaro wasn’t expected to be, and shouldn’t be, the fastest Honda rider. Takaaki Nakagami, Alex Marquez and Stefan Bradl all have vast experience on the RC213V but really struggled to make progress. Instead, all three spent plenty of time on the deck across the five days on what’s supposed to be a more user-friendly Honda following the long absence of Marc Marquez. Nakagami fell twice, destroying a set of brand-new fairings in the process, whilst Alex Marquez crashed an astonishing five times across both tests, fracturing the fourth metatarsal of his right foot in the final crash. Stefan Bradl, who’s done more testing than anybody, crashed twice and missed half a session after feeling dizzy. That’s plenty of time and new parts lost in a test where they failed to complete their testing programme.
“I think our level is at 55-60% [heading into the season] because I’m still not really confident,” Nakagami admitted. “We’re not happy with the performance and we’re still don’t have a competitive pace or bike. The feedback from the bike isn’t good, especially with the new chassis.”
The plan for the final day was to back-to-back test the new and old chassis in order to make a decision. But due to the final day being a write off, this didn’t happen.