On Track Off Road No.181

Un-watered down orange
‘squash’
It’s hard not to like Pol Espargaro. He is
sincere, open, expressive and clearly enamoured
with his job and opportunity. He has
been bashed around a fair bit in 2018 both
before and during the season. In fact, such
was his rate of luck this year that most of the
Red Bull KTM crew can be forgiven for chewing
through a few finger nails as he tussled
with Marc Marquez and somehow crashed,
recovered and made third place happen at
Valencia. A good result was not unexpected –
Espargaro had shown top ten, even top five,
pace through wet and dry practice in Spain
and qualified in sixth – but to be able to
charge to third was another realm.
“To always be in the top eight was building
me and my confidence up during the
weekend. I knew I could be up there,” he
recounted. “Marc had some problems with
the rear tyre and I knew he did not have the
same grip as me or the rest of the guys. I
tried to overtake him from inside and outside
but Marc was braking so hard and the Honda
was really good on acceleration.”
Espargaro left Yamaha and Tech 3 in a spate
of prolonged frustration of not being given
competitive tools in MotoGP. His signature
for KTM required complete reorientation of
his goals and presence in grand prix, and
he has displayed patience and quietened
ambition in the cause. The team seemed to
lean more towards his potential for results
compared to Bradley Smith and after two
seasons it is the Catalan who has stamped
the best results and classifications in qualifications
and races to-date. “In Moto2 and 125
I was winning and on the podium and was
constantly there,” he explained. “As humans
we are so stupid because we get used to
good things when they happen. When I was
world champion you enjoy it so much and
it was amazing and because you have been
winning so much it is emotional…but not
really like today. What we did today was so
difficult and we have been trying so many
times with this new bike, this new KTM. It
makes this so emotional, maybe more than
winning a world championship…even if it is
only a third place.”
He shakes his head. “I was so fast in T2 and
when you are fast in one place you don’t
need to try harder compared to the others
but I tried in that place and made an amazing
crash, a big highside. The bike was without
part of the fairing. I then worked from
last to seventh-eighth. It was wild and I don’t
know how I did it because I could not see
much in the straight, there was a lot of wind
and my neck was hurting because I could not
tuck into anything at that speed. The red flag
was like a ‘message’ because the bike was
still working after that big crash and I said to
myself ‘man, this is your opportunity, take it’.
On whether he could have imagined a rostrum
appearance so early, at the culmination
of his first contract with another two years
to go, Espargaro was realistic. “Not for me
at the beginning,” he states. Maybe for Mr
Pierer at home and Pit [Beirer]; they are
strong people and they know what they want!
For me it was difficult to see this result and
imagine it. We have to think that this bike
has only been running for two years. In Qatar
last year we were the last on the grid and a
second away from the guy in front. During
the season we have been ‘blocked’ because I
have been injured and Mika [Kallio] also and
it was difficult for development.”