Home win perfect for Espargaró

Pol Espargaró occupies second place in the 125cc World Championship standings after two rounds, and the first win of his 2010 campaign at the Gran Premio bwin de España served to underline the credibility of his hopes for the title.

The Spanish teenager followed up his fourth place in the season opener in Qatar with victory in his home GP, and the raucous atmosphere created by 120,000 enthusiastic fans at Jerez over the weekend heightened the experience of a third career win for Espargaró.

“It was incredible! The crowd were so much fun and when I entered the corners I could feel them, they were so loud. For a rider that is incredible and to win is amazing,” he said.

“The race was difficult because we knew in practice that the tyres would not be great when it came to the last laps, so we worked a lot on that for the beginning of the race. We did all we could with the old tyre.”

Espargaró entered the start of the season as one of a group of favourites to succeed Julián Simón as the eighth-litre World Champion, and he is maintaining a level head as he looks forward to the remainder of what will be a long campaign.

“We must do the best we can,” he said. “We are at a very good level with the team, with the engine and the bike, now we must work hard to take this victory and work race by race to take the Championship.”