Fifth podium in a row for Espargaro

Pol Espargaró gained his fifth podium of the season and in a row at Assen (Holland) after a troubled weekend with set-up problems. The Tuenti Racing Derbi rider made a bad start and dropped to ninth position but then charged back through the upper echelons of the pack to fill third place. His flight ended there as Marc Márquez and Nico Terol had opened an unbridgeable gap and Bradley Smith was a comfortable distance behind. After this result Espargaró holds second spot in the 125cc world championship standings, three points from the peak of the table with his home event next weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya. Efrén Vázquez had a less fortunate day and after a great start – in which he pushed into fourth – he hit the floor on the fourth lap. The youngster is sixth in the series.

3rd POL ESPARGARÓ
“All my chances of the win practically vanished at the start, because I had some wheel-spin and I couldn’t get the drive I wanted. From ninth position I started to move forward as fast as I could but when I reached third the race was pretty much finished; Marc and Nico had almost two seconds and it was tough to bridge. I took a few risks for two or three laps and went to the limit but I only cut about a hundredth off the gap, so I looked towards the podium which is a good result for a weekend that started quite badly and in which we had some set-up problems. If I had started better then I think I could have been in the top two, even though it is fair to say that during the weekend I lacked some rhythm. Now we have our home race and it will be easy to look ahead and get psyched for that one.”

EFRÉN VÁZQUEZ, DNF, crash
“I started well and attached myself to the leading group, setting times better than I had managed in practice. When Pol passed me I know I could not afford to lose him if I wanted to fight for the podium but it wasn’t to be and a little while afterwards I felt the rear shock bottom out and it sent me flying. It is a shame because I could have taken a lot of points and a few places in the championship but it wasn’t to be and now we will get another good chance in a few days at the Montmelo circuit.”

Source: Tuenti Derbi