Lucky Pons escapes serious injury while Espagaro qualifies 7th

It’s been a difficult day at the British Grand Prix, a very cold day where the dreaded rain has finally appeared. In these circumstances the Pons riders still had a good performance, although the official qualifying brought the bad news of the crash of Axel Pons, albeit with less than expected physical consequences. Pons was thrown of his Kalex, hitting the pavement hard. In a first scan it was feared he might have suffered a broken right collarbone, but in the end it’s only been a strong hit which in principle should not prevent him from racing tomorrow. Despite this incident and the fact that he lost the decisive minutes of the session, the young rider from Barcelona has been able to post the 16th fastest time.

Things have gone better for Aleix Espargaro who eventually set the 7th fastest time, again getting among the top riders in the category. Still, Aleix has not felt entirely comfortable with the front of the Kalex Pons, which didn’t allow him to go with full confidence into the curves. But the result allows him to tackle the race on Sunday with confidence.

# 40. Aleix Espargaro: 7 – 2’09’216
“The position I have is not bad, but I think the gap to the fastest is a bit too big. I couldn’t ride really comfortable, I dislike the bumps a lot and I can not make the bike go well at all on a track as fast as this one. I’m 7th and I know the race is another thing, because more or less I think we have a good rhythm. I just do not see myself as strong as in Barcelona ​​and that worries me a bit. I’d like it to be a dry race because it could be fun, I think we can be in a large group and there I would have to give it all to finish in the best position possible. I will fight a lot and to be honest there are a couple of guys with better pace than us.”

# 80. Axel Pons: 16 – 2’09’994
“It’s a pity that I crashed, because I felt very well in this session. I decided to push hard at the beginning, because it seemed like it could rain and it would be necessary to do a good laptime early to go on with the setting work. I set my fastest lap on lap five, and when I came back to push hard I encountered a lot of traffic, so could not improve. When I found a gap, I’m not sure how, but the bike took shook me through and I took a hard hit. It hurt a lot on the clavicle and neck and I feared the worst. Luckily after doing several tests it’s been ruled out that I have any cervical injury and despite the initial shock the doctors have ruled out a broken collarbone. Although I twisted some joins in the shoulder which causes a lot of pain. Anyway, I’m going to put myself in the hands of physiotherapists and see if tomorrow I can be in the best conditions for the race, because I think I’ve got a good setup.”

Source: Pons Racing