Pol Espargaro ‘enjoyed’ his opening day at Silverstone with the British track’s new surface providing the well needed grip he’s been missing to get the best out of his Repsol Honda.

The Catalan finished Friday fourth in the combined times, seven-tenths behind Fabio Quartararo and a mere 0.016s ahead of teammate Marc Marquez.

“It was a good day, but I think it was a little bit better in Le Mans. Le Mans I was in better shape,” Espargaro admitted on Friday.

“Everything was going quite okay, just with the medium tyres, it was too cold, and it was a little bit unsafe, with the crashes we have seen. I really didn’t push so much with the mediums to find out a good rhythm. But anyway at the end I had a clear idea with the soft tyres that I could push to find the limit and everything is coming quite smooth. So at the moment, no complaints at all, everything is fine and I feel good with the temperature, with the bike, with the track. Yeah, everything is working pretty well.”

Reflecting on why he has had such a positive Friday, compared to the majority of his debut season with the Honda, Espargaro has a simple answer. Grip.

“The temperature is low, which gives you more grip with soft tyres,” he explained. “You have generally more, a little bit more, grip. It happened exactly the same with Le Mans, if you remember, that temperature was very similar - the track, the asphalt, very similar - and these conditions help me.

“As much grip as I have, for other riders maybe in the past, in other manufacturers, when we had quite a lot of grip for my teammates, sometimes or most of the times it was a big problem, and they didn’t know how to manage this grip, but for me it was a huge advantage. They had problem with the front, pushing, and quite a lower stability, but for me, good grip I can manage. Like people with low grip is fast, I’m fast with the high grip.

“This means that for sure the low grip, you have more chance to have it. There is more places with hot conditions than cold conditions, there is more places with bad asphalt than good asphalt. So that’s why I struggle a little bit more than the others, especially this year, when our main problem is missing the grip. I have explained many times, that I have problem with a rear brake, I cannot use it because we have low grip on the entry, but here seems to everything be a little bit smoother and nicer in that way.

“So for me it’s better to ride like this but we need to keep working. This is just the beginning and tomorrow maybe other problems can come, so we can be confident, it’s nice, but we need to keep working.

“This track, should theoretically, be more to Yamaha which, Quartararo showed today, how fast the Yamaha can be here, and also theoretically fast corners, fast track, Ducati, but they’ve been not so fast today - I am sure tomorrow they are going to be.

“But for our bike, for sure is not one of the best places, but actually we, for contrast, we have this new asphalt, that give us grip. We are struggling and having so much problems with grip through all the year that when we have a little - it’s like when you have a very bad thing and then someone give you a little bit better, you hold it much more than the people that have it always.

“I was walking yesterday the track and I saw the colour of the track and that temperature and everything, I expect to be the track a little bit more grip than normally. This help us so much, especially on the entry. We can stop the bike faster, we can break very late. I can use a little bit more the rear brake. I can open the throttle a little bit with some angle, and then when I pick up, I’m not spinning anymore, the spinning is stopping. I mean, for me to ride like this I kind of enjoy, and together with Le Mans is one of the first times.

“At the end, nothing has been done yet. I mean, what we did today, counts for nothing. Honestly, tomorrow morning, everyone is going to improve the lap times. So, if we do not improve the lap time tomorrow morning, what we have done, even the good feelings, will be gone. So it’s definitely not anything done. We need to work more, we need to be faster tomorrow, so even if the feelings are good, we need to understand where we are weak, and where we can improve. That’s it and then for sure, Sunday is the main day. At the end, today has been just show off.”