Aleix Espargaro: 2026 Honda “better everywhere”, I need to be “braver”!

Aleix Espargaro put his younger brother Pol’s status as the season's fastest test rider under threat during a competitive Friday practice at the Valencia season finale.

Competing in his fifth event of the season, Espargaro arrived fresh from shaking down the 2026 Hondas at Aragon last weekend.

The Spaniard’s two machines will be handed over to factory stars Joan Mir and Luca Marini for Tuesday’s official test, meaning Espargaro needs to avoid damaging the machines.

Even so, the former Aprilia race winner turned heads with third on the timesheets in opening practice, then came within 0.1s of direct Qualifying 2 access with 13th (+0.592s) in the afternoon.

“Aragon was basically the shakedown of the ‘26 bikes… And these are the two bikes that Joan and Luca are going to ride on Tuesday, so I will take care during the weekend,” Espargaro said.

“In the last two months, I’ve been testing a lot. We've been four times in Malaysia! Then also Aragon,” he revealed.

“So I’ve got used more to the bike and definitely this ‘26 bike is to me a lot better than the bike I rode for the first time in Malaysia.

“Today, no excuses, I can say to you that this is not the limit of the bike. I push, but in the hard braking, the acceleration, the mid-corner I have margin - or the bike has margin! 

"The bike can go faster, so I think this is a good sign.”

Quizzed on where the new bike is better, Espargaro said:

“More stable, that's for sure. We have improved the torque a lot since the beginning of the season. You can see that the top speed, we are basically one of the fastest bikes right now. And the aero allows us to stop the bike better, which you could see in Malaysia with Joan and how late he brakes.

“Still we have margin in the aero side. I think we have to work hard during the winter to improve, especially the fairing of the bike for next year. We’ve also worked a lot with different swing-arms during the season, and I have a new one that gives me a lot more stability. Also the electronics, the TC is really good. So the bike is completely another one from the beginning.”

The new bike doesn’t need a different riding style, since “it's just better everywhere”, allowing Espargaro to show the kind of top ten speed younger brother Pol delivered in his KTM outings earlier this season.

Mir, in ninth, was the only Honda rider quicker than Espargaro on Friday.

“I’m very proud of all the test team because the last two months they worked very hard, they travel a lot, so it's good that they enjoy also. And I enjoyed a lot riding,” he said.

“I felt really strong today and I felt with the time attack - I was aiming for another tyre to try to put the bike in the top 10, top 5 because really the bike is good.

“But I need to be braver with the time attack. I'm 36 years old, I didn't do the time attack in a long time because during the test we cannot do time attacks. So I miss some speed in one single lap.”

Pol Espargaro’s best finish this season was eighth at Balaton Park.

Aleix’s fellow HRC test rider Takaaki Nakagami has taken the best test rider finish of the season so far with sixth in the wet French MotoGP.

Honda will move from D to C in the MotoGP concessions ranking if it scores at least nine points this weekend.