Pol Espargaro suffers disappointing retirement at Assen

 In MotoGP, News

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Pol Espargaro suffered ill luck as he retired during round 8 of the 2014 MotoGP world championship at Assen on lap 18. The reigning Moto2 World champion began the day in positive fashion by seizing 3rd in this morning’s warm up before starting the Iveco Daily Dutch TT from 11th on the grid.

After choosing to make a last minute swap to his tyre choice, the rookie had to start from the rear of the field in 23rd but expertly elevated himself up to 14th position by the end of the first lap before changing bikes on lap seven due to the drying track. The Spanish star rejoined the race and set his sights on regaining some positions but fell on lap 15.

He heroically remounted and attempted to carry on after entering the pits again to swap bikes, before retiring on lap 18 from the Grand Prix.

His non finish marks a disappointing end to a weekend which was full of high promise with the MotoGP rookie continuing to learn at every race in an impressive manner during his first season in the premier class.

Pol Espargaro
“It has been such an unlucky and disappointing end to this weekend! We started in a brilliant way during the practice sessions where I felt strong and competitive on the bike. My only worry was the weather and the storyboard planned the worst scenario for me. The rain arrived when we were going to the starting grid and from that moment on I got really nervous. I think , we also made a few of unfortunate decisions as it was actually a gamble which tyres to choose at the beginning of the race. Also the fact that my first ever wet laps had to be the opening ones of today’s race did not really help my confidence. However, I really didn’t feel comfortable enough to push and when we changed to dry tyres I was already far behind trying to close the gap to the riders in front of me, but I made a mistake and crashed. Afterwards, I returned to the pit box and tried to finish the race with my second bike, which was on rain tyres, but with the track already dry there was nothing I could do. Now I have to look forward to the next race in Germany in two weeks of time where we hopefully will be able to show our true potential.”

Source: Tech3 Communications

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