A strong seventh for Pol Espargaro in the wet in Austin practice sessions

Pol Espargaro kick-started his round 2 campaign at the Circuit Of The Americas by delivering a solid performance to finish in 7th overall on the opening day in Texas.

The first practice began in difficult circumstances with a heavy downfall of rain as well as a red flag causing disruptions to the practice. Nevertheless, Espargaro powered onwards and completed FP1 in 7th place with a best time of 2’20.983.

The weather improved in the afternoon, which permitted the riders to revert to slick tyres and the 2014 rookie of the year continued to push as he set up his Yamaha YZR-M1 for the 21 lap sprint on Sunday.

The end of the session saw Espargaro meet the chequered flag in 7th with a best time of 2’05.840 and a performance that saw him under three tenths back from 4th.

The young Spaniard’s effort leaves him optimistic of improving his pace in Saturday’s free practice session before the all-important qualifying.

Pol Espargaro
“Overall, today was quite a positive start to the weekend and I am pleased with what we managed to achieve in the tricky conditions. This morning we had probably our first ever fully wet session in the MotoGP class and I’m happy to say that the feelings I had on the bike were really good. The only thing that was missing was a quick lap at the end of the session unfortunately, but I felt comfortable and my time was not so bad. In the dry, we decided to go with our base setting and I didn’t return to the pit box at all, so nothing was changed. For sure, there are many things which can be improved, but now we will look at the data and hopefully tomorrow the weather conditions will improve so that I will be able to as well. Altogether, the first day was good so I am looking forward to getting back out on the track.”

Source: Tech3 Communications