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Pol Espargaró 's Sprint Race at the Red Bull Ring ended with a ninth place. KTM's home track, where the Catalan test rider is engaged in his second wilcard of the season. Not the easiest weekend for the youngest of the Espargaró brothers, in action with a "laboratory" RC16 . But after the problems that plagued him on Friday, Polyccio managed to complete the shortest race, winning the last available point.
"Today's day went much better than yesterday's, although on race weekends things happen that you can't control or that you didn't expect. Like, for example, the fact that the pressure went up so much today and I didn't know how to manage it during the race, because I'm not used to doing that in the testing I do ," commented the KTM test rider. " There are no pressure variations, turbulence or riders crashing, going long or overtaking you, and managing all that is very complicated. We also had a small problem with the dashboard, but other than that we gathered information and experience."
Still, a good test for Pol, no longer accustomed to the pace of a MotoGP race weekend.
"I'm still 33, not 50. I was going to say 40, but Dani is close and it's scary. But yes, I have good speed. It's also true that I was able to prepare a little better in the test, and despite the problems we had yesterday today it wasn't bad," the Catalan noted.
A speed that would be enough for him to get back to a place on the grid?
"To have it I would have to want it, and I don't know if I want it. When you go out and then come back, you realize the stress, the anxiety and especially the risks these riders take. From the outside, you don't realize it. You can only try a little bit to empathize, and I don't think even they realize the risk they are taking and the stress they are under. But it's a huge thing and it's not healthy ," Espargaró explained, " I'm happy that I don't feel the anxiety that I felt today every weekend. My character has really changed a lot and I realize the way I react to my wife's presence when I get up in the morning, if we are here or if I am at home on a normal day. This pressure is really big to handle, but they don't realize it."
The Spanish test rider then went back to talk about what he did on the track, starting with the qualifying session that saw him finish on the fourth row with a crash.
"The goal was the second row and it was really very close, but I made a mistake and crashed. It was bad because I think we had the right speed and a great chance. There is a lot of pressure to be here racing with the others. I was nervous and anxious, also because of the problem we had yesterday with the engine, because I think we could have entered Q2. It wasn't going to be easy, but we had a great chance. That made it even more intense, but we got some good information. Although we have to figure out how to improve," said Pol, who then explained the difficulties he encountered on the first qualifying lap.
"I'm used to doing the time alone in testing, while today I was with the others and, as I said, I was very nervous, because I'm not very good at following the other riders anymore: you have to understand where to brake, because you get sucked into the slipstream. You need a different technique, " he explained, " The riders who are always using the slipstream must be really good because it's not easy! It's a skill I've lost and I preferred to ride alone, because in testing I had lapped in 1'28"3, which was a record time until this weekend, and I knew I could get there."
Espargaró then talked about the new engine his KTM is equipped with.
"I used the same specification as yesterday, and yes, today it made it to the bottom," he noted with a laugh, " Honestly, the problem we had yesterday, after so many laps in testing, was just bad luck. We didn't expect that inconvenience and we were annoyed when it happened because it could happen in testing but it didn't and even if we continued with this bike next year I don't think it would happen again. Anyway, it's good to know and that it happened now."
What benefits does it bring?
"It's very difficult to tell in a Sprint Race, because today for example I had the front tire pressure through the roof: it was 0.5 bar higher than it should have been and that's a lot. In these conditions, even if the bike could for example stop better, you wouldn't notice because the front tends to lock up and it doesn't stop. When you're alone in testing you can make comparisons because the bike is more performance - he said - The very fact that I could have been the fastest in the time attack today, without having the speed and talent that riders like Brad, Pedro, Jack and Augusto have, means a lot, because they are usually 3 or 4 tenths faster than me."
The constant blockages were not a problem suffered only by the Catalan, as Binder faced the same issue.
"Brad is very good at this and can handle it. I didn't have this problem in testing or over the weekend until the Sprint Race and I was shocked when it showed up," Pol admitted, " I was with the others, but then I started to drop and had to try to figure out why I couldn't stop the bike. The part where you act the most on the front brake, for example, is the first sector, and I made my best first sector with about 4 or 5 laps to go, when I had no more rubber. That means I got there too late. Anyway, tomorrow we will have another chance and I think it will be better, because it will help us a little bit that everyone will be riding the medium on the rear."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
