Pol Espargaro has admitted he was shocked by his pace in today’s Suzuka Eight-Hours Superpole as he marmalised the outright lap record with a 2’06.0s lap to put a quarter of a second between Yamaha and Team Green Kawasaki.

Espargaro recovered from a crash at Degner yesterday to post the time only to watch team-mate Kats Nakasuga post an almost identical 2’06.059s lap in his session, giving Yamaha very strong pace for tomorrow’s race,

“I feel very happy, because this was a challenge for me and I did not expect this result. We did just one test with Bradley and Nakasuga in the preseason on the dry and we didn’t ride a lot on this track. Bradley was also fast this weekend, his pace was very similar and the same with Nakasuga, he was also very fast,” said Espargaro.

“Tomorrow we have the big show and it will be difficult, because anything can happen, but we are confident. When I saw my lap time I was a bit surprised because I never tested the softer rear tyre during the tests or this weekend and I never rode in Superpole before with only one lap.

“Here today we had just one shot and in your mind you’re always checking the lap and thinking of where you could improve something. Maybe I could have improved in the last sector, because I relaxed a little bit and was wary of making a mistake in the chicane.

“When I saw the time I said “come on!”, because it would be difficult for someone to beat it, but when I saw the lap time of Nakasuga-san I was a bit scared, he was also very fast, but I was lucky that I was fast in T1 and this gave me a chance, but Nagasuga was very strong in T4 and I was worried again.

“I’m happy because I did a good lap time, but Nakasuga was also under the record and Bradley showed good potential over the whole weekend. Our pace is really similar and this is more important than the pole.”

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