Espargaro fine after ‘nothing crash, I was very angry with myself’, finishes P2
Pol Espargaro finished day-one of the Valencia MotoGP in second position behind Jack Miller, despite suffering a late crash.
Espargaro, who is once again leading Honda’s charge with Marc Marquez being absent, was relatively competitive during this morning’s wet FP1 - finished P9.
However, once conditions dried out for FP2, the Spaniard demonstrated the type of pace that took him to second in last month’s second Misano round.
After taking top spot away from Francesco Bagnaia on numerous occasions late on, it was the second factory Ducati in the form of Miller who swooped in to take first away from Espargaro.
Espargaro, who had one attempt left at a flying lap then crashed at turn six, a fall that left the 30 year-old very ‘angry with myself’.
"I pushed and I crashed. That’s why I was angry. I was angry with myself - not with the team or the bike," said Espargaro.
"Sure, on the first day there are problems, problems that we need to improve. The thing is I knew I could crash if I pushed in certain places.
"So when I pushed I crashed. I was angry because it could have been avoided in a day that has been very good. That crash was for nothing."
Although Espargaro was least pleased with himself following the fall, he wasn’t alone in crashing as FP1 and FP2 also saw riders such as Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia, (both turn two), Jack Miller (last corner) and Danilo Petrucci (turn four) all go down, just to name a few.
But despite struggling in certain points of the track - hence why he felt the need to push, Espargaro also had areas where he was equally strong, most notably right-sided corners.
When asked about his weak/strong points, Espargaro said: "I think my weakest point is the T4, but turn two is one of my strongest areas. In the right corners I was risking a bit more on the right even though the temperature was not there I was taking quite a bit of advantage.
"T1, the first corner was still a bit wet, so I think I still have some potential to be faster. I had some problems with the front tyre already.
"The hard tyres in the front are on the softer area. I think we will be able to use the hard front when the track is going to improve.
"Sure, this morning it would be a little bit better but it was very risky in the right corners. So, I think we did the right thing in keeping the medium one.
"I think with the hard tyre maybe we could avoid the crash. Anyway, overall we are doing a good job and I just want to continue the same job tomorrow. The confidence is high. We will see what tomorrow brings."
