Third row start in Austin for Pol Espargaro

Pol Espargaro will commence his second Americas Grand Prix on the Yamaha YZR-M1 from the rear of the third row after undertaking a thorough qualifying effort yesterday in Texas.

The young Spaniard opened his Saturday account positively by finishing in 6th position in FP3, with a lap of 2’03.773. This performance saw him elevate instantly through to Q2 as the weather threatened rain which then failed to fall.

Once the qualifying practice began, Espargaro launched into action and undertook 7 laps before setting a 2’03.161 on his last.

Impressively, this time was a massive improvement of over seven tenths of a second from last year’s qualifying. After a positive weekend so far, the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider will be seeking to battle to a strong result in Sunday’s 21 lap dash in America.

Pol Espargaro
“To be honest I am not at all satisfied with our qualifying result as we managed to solve all of the issues that we faced this morning and the bike was good. However, I made a mistake on my fast lap and ran straight on. After that, I was able to improve my lap time but the tyre wasn’t fresh anymore and that unfortunately makes a huge difference at this track. I have nobody to blame as it was my own fault, but for sure starting from the back of the third row won’t make things any easier tomorrow. Nevertheless we must remain confident as the race is long and also the weather forecast is not clear as of yet.”

Source: Tech3 Communications