Pol Espargaro lines up ninth on Brno grid
Pol Espargaro continued his positive qualifying campaign this year by clinching 9th position which will see him start Sunday’s 22 lap race around the 5403 metre Brno circuit from the 3rd row.
Following yesterday’s noteworthy performance in the rookie’s first full wet session the reigning Moto2 World Champion completed this morning’s practice with a best time of 1’56.825 allowing him to slip straight through to the Q2 session before improving his time further in FP4 to strongly finish in 4th.
Espargaro sustained his confident performances as he sought to lower his lap time further in the 15 minute session and then blazed to a best time of 1’55.899 which was only 0.173 from the front row and three tenths of a second from the pole position time.
Tomorrow he will aim to undertake a soaring start and battle to a top 5 finish once again for round 11 of his rookie campaign in the premier class.
Pol Espargaro
“I am a little disappointed with qualifying 9th after I have ran well in the rankings during the whole weekend so far, including 4th in FP4 so I hoped to be a little higher at the end of qualifying. All of the times today were really close and the distance to the front row was not too far at all, but the competition is high as this is MotoGP. Honestly, I still lack a bit of experience in qualifying because in this class you have to perform your quick lap instantly whereas in Moto2 there was more time and you built yourself up for the attack. The qualifying result today puts us into a slightly tricky situation and the start will be vital to score a good result here. In terms of tyre choice, I did try both compounds today and I felt confident on either variation, however we will decide on which one to race after judging the conditions tomorrow morning. I would not predict tomorrow’s race to be an easy one but I am still convinced we can do a good job as my race pace itself is very promising and my aim is still a top five finish here in Brno.”
Source: Tech3 Communications
