Pol Espargaro’s “great lap”: From New York shopping trip to top KTM

Tech3 stand-in Pol Espargaro turned heads by being the fastest KTM rider in Friday practice for the Australian MotoGP - just days after shopping with his wife in New York.

The eight-time MotoGP podium finisher has been recalled by KTM to replace the injured Maverick Vinales, a role he performed in Brno and Austria.

But those tracks had the unknown factor of returning (Brno) or being brand new (Balaton Park) to the world championship calendar.

Espargaro hadn’t ridden the RC16 since his eighth place in Hungary two months ago and joked on Thursday that the fearsome Phillip Island circuit wasn't the ideal place to jump in ‘cold’.

“This is not a place to come and chill!” he said. “Your adrenaline goes high to the clouds, and you need to perform from lap one.”

But that’s exactly what Espargaro did, finishing the morning session within 0.757s of the top and only 0.019s behind full-time Tech3 rider Enea Bastianini.

Time attacks are usually the toughest moment for a test rider, who rarely gets to push on new tyres and low fuel.

But Espargaro excelled in the afternoon, being among the riders to break the previous lap record as he snatched eighth place with a time just 0.562s behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.

The next best KTM was Pedro Acosta in tenth, followed by Brad Binder in twelfth and Enea Bastianini in 20th.

"I am impressed for sure, I was not really expecting to be that fast!” Espargaro admitted.

“Just a few days ago, I was in New York with my wife having fun, shopping, and now, we are in Q2 at the Australian GP, so life is very fun!

“I feel good with the bike, it is behaving super good, I can control all the parameters. Even when we push, we manage to not make too many mistakes, so it's great!

“We made a great lap for sure, maybe I can't repeat it twice, but everything is going well, I am very pleased with the Tech3 team, so let's see if we can continue in that direction tomorrow.”

Bastianini was quick to praise his team-mate’s form.

"Congratulations to Pol, because he has done such a great job today!” he said.

“From my side, the day has been very difficult. Arriving in Australia, I was conscious that we might struggle, because the fast corners were difficult for me in Mandalika, and with the wind here, it was just worse.

“We obviously have a lot of work to do, because we are far from being competitive. We are a bit lost at the moment, the feeling on the bike is quite negative, so we are trying to find as soon as possible a way to be competitive again."

While Espargaro is now guaranteed to start no longer than twelfth on the grid, Bastianini must try and fight through Saturday morning’s Qualifying 1.

Fellow stand-in riders Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Michele Pirro (Ducati) were 19th and 21st, respectively.