Repsol Honda’s Pol Espargaro completed a surprisingly positive Friday at Assen in second place, after expecting a tough start to the Dutch GP.
The Spaniard rider had planned to use team-mate Marc Marquez as a guide for the weekend to help him understand where he had been going wrong in recent races but found he was “flying” on his own in FP1 with the afternoon rain disrupting his initial plans further.
“Today has been a good day, the bike was working well, I was riding happy, and I was riding really how I wanted to. Everything was coming in an easy way, I wasn’t having to push or override the bike,” Espargaro said on Friday afternoon.
“We had a lot to test today. Marc’s bike, his set up, the new chassis, but I didn’t do anything! I started with the bike that I finished with in Germany, and riding in FP1, was so good, I was so confident, so fast that I kept going with it. I said ‘Okay, we just try the new chassis’, because Marc’s bike was not as important as to try the new chassis. So I planned to try this in FP2, but with the rain, I couldn’t test.
“It was spitting at the beginning so I said ‘Okay, let’s go out with the bike we finished with this morning and then I will jump on the new chassis for the second run’ but honestly I had no chance to use it. So at the end, I ended up exactly the same as I finish in Germany.
“Even if it has long corners [at this track], the asphalt is new, and the grip is better, and this helped me a lot on the edge grip that I am always asking for, to ride a bike as I need to. It was important after the Barcelona test, to go to Sachsenring but then to another place like Holland - because Holland is more similar to Barcelona - so it was good to reconfirm that what we changed in Barcelona, works.
Today, in the morning, I was flying so I was enjoying being on the bike. It was, I think, the first time I really enjoyed being fast every lap and with a good pace, and when I was pushing I was getting the times, so that was a good feeling.
“The plan for sure was to check Marc’s bike, but as the new chassis was coming, we preferred to use this chassis. Also the Japanese asked me to try it because it was something interesting to check which direction they needed to take after the summer break.”
The Catalan’s progress was dented somewhat after a small crash at turn five at the beginning of the afternoon practice with the incoming rain leaving any remaining plans up in the air, however, he remained on the fringes of the top-10 on wet tyres at the close of FP2.
“The crash was stupid,” he admitted.
“It was spitting with rain a little bit during all the first run, and as I finished very good this morning I didn’t want to crash. So I was taking the first laps easy, then I took one lap slow and then I wanted to push again, but the temperature was not very good for the medium tyre. It was on the limit, and then it cooled down a little so when I pushed on the left, as the first corners are on the right, it was too cold and I lost the front, so it was my mistake.
“It’s true that statistically, the Hondas are crashing more than the others, this is clear. Our complaints are about the rear grip in the edge, which is when you take the first initial throttle. I had a crash, for example, similar to Marc’s one, in Portimao and for sure, we are asking for grip when the grip is not there - is not just to be fast sometimes, it’s also about safety. We are working to get a better grip on the edge and in acceleration, which is going to help us to be more safe. If we check, for example, Ducati has not many crashes, like these ones, so it means that they have a good grip on the rear.
“The grip is affecting both the entry and exit. In the exit, sometimes if it’s on the edge, like Marc, for example, is difficult to control sometimes, but if it’s entry, it’s even harder to control. This is something that’s difficult to get used to and it’s the most critical and dangerous part of MotoGP - this control on the entry of the corner - if the rear slides on the entry then is really bad.”
