Pons & Espargaro take advantage of Estoril weather to test bike feeling in wet conditions
The weather forecasts were right and the three days of testing at Estoril provided to teams of 125cc and Moto2 were marked by rain and wind. As in the last Grand Prix of Portugal, Estoril has been unfriendly to the World Championship riders who had great difficulties to work, yet both Aleix Espargaro as Axel Pons have been able to draw some interesting conclusions these three days. With today’s track time, the Pons Racing team has accumulated eight working sessions in the past eleven days which has been a strong return to the preseason in which they were able to complete most of the work planned.
On Tuesday, the conditions meant that few riders even dared to jump on their bikes, but despite the rain they did go out on Wednesday. Aleix Espargaro was able to complete thirty laps in the wet conditions, testing out the feeling with the Kalex Pons in these conditions. With more than positive results, because the Granollers native was able to pick up good pace from very early on, getting a good feeling with his bike. Axel Pons also racked up 35 laps in the wet, which confirmed that the 2011 model of Kalex is still as effective as the first model in the wet.
In today’s testing session, with intervals of dry and wet asphalt due to intermittent rain and strong gusts of wind, the two riders tried to make progress in different points of the initial testing plan, but in the end the state of the track meant that there are still some things left for the next test. But the positive conclusion, like yesterday, is that both riders were able to try out their bikes in complicated conditions always appear occasionally throughout the season.
The next preseason test will take place from March 4th to 6th at the Jerez circuit and will be the last test before the start of the championship in Qatar
#40. Aleix Espargaro: “With so little time in preseason it is a pity that we had to deal with these conditions, but fortunately we were able to take something away from it to advance with our work. I preferred the second day when the track was completely wet which allowed me to test out the Pons Kalex under these conditions. And with very positive feelings, because normally I’m not that comfortable in the wet. I could do a lot of laps and collect some information in case we have rain at a Grand Prix this season. Today I tried to use the few moments when the track was half dry, but it really wasn’t all that good and it made no sense to risk a silly crash. Overall I’ve been able to test in the wet and and I can say that I’m satisfied with the amount of work we have done in the first two weeks of preseason.”
#80. Axel Pons: “On the first day we did a few laps, but the conditions were so bad that we ruled out any further work. Yesterday we tested in the wet conditions to see how the new bike behaves and how I feel in these conditions; every lap I was feeling more comfortable which allowed me to ride quite fast. I did over thirty laps, but then stopped, not wanting to risk more than necessary. And today we got very little out of it. We started in the morning in the dry, but it immediately started raining. Then dried up from the wind and then it started to rain again … It made it impossible to work. In the afternoon we were able to do a few laps, but things were not too well. Despite that I have been able to improve my laptimes with every lap, but we can’t draw too many conclusions from it.”
Source: Pons Racing
