'Too aggressive' Espargaro held back by riding style

Pol Espargaro struggled on the first day at Jerez with the reigning Moto2 world champion admitting afterwards that his riding style needs to change if he is make progress on the Tech3 Yamaha.

Espargaro, who finished the day 11th fastest, admitted that his aggressive riding style needs to be tempered if he is to get the best from the Yamaha with excessive tyre wear, as a result of spinning up the rear wheel under acceleration, the main area of improvement.

"I need to be a bit smoother on the bike because in Argentina after the race we had some cuts on the tyre and Bridgestone said that I am making too much spin on the tyre with the traction control," said Espargaro. "I compared [the data] to Lorenzo and Rossi and I can see that I'm getting too much spin and that's the main problem for us. At the last few laps of the race I feel lost because I have no tyres from having too much spin. I waste too much of the tyres so it's difficult to use the tyres during the race."

When asked by Crash.net if it was an issue to do with adapting to MotoGP or something in his riding style Espargaro admitted that it was a problem even in Moto2 and that he now needs to smoothen his riding if he is to close the gap to the leaders

"It's my style, in Moto2 I had the same problem, I'm too aggressive on the throttle and want to be too fast around the corner. It doesn't make sense to open the throttle fully when the traction control is on because you won't gain any time but in your mind you are thinking that you should push more!

"We had some problems with the front but it's because I'm nervous with the bike and I'm fighting the bike. The bike is like a lady and if you are fighting with your lady you will never be happy and have a good relationship! I have to ride the bike smooth like Jorge."

Learning to adapt to a much more powerful bike is difficult for any rider and with no prior experience of Traction Control it takes time to adapt riding styles to the new challenges presented by a MotoGP bike. For most rookies the fastest times come when they slow themselves down and concentrate on being as smooth as possible. The old adage of 'Slow is fast' is particularly apt in the current era of MotoGP.

"When the fast lap time comes I learned but when I put in a new tyre I forget that in MotoGP the lap time comes when you are smooth and thinking that you're riding slowly."