Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) had a positive final race of 2016 at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana, with a ride to P6 just beating Sepang winner Andrea Dovizioso over the line. That made Espargaro the top Independent Team rider in the race once again – something he has made a habit of throughout 2016 – although wasn’t quite able to take the title of best Independent Team rider in the overall Championship standings.
After three years together – since graduating to the premier class as Moto2™ World Champion at the end of 2013 – Espargaro now moves on to a new challenge with Red Bull KTM Factory racing.
Pol Espargaro (P6): "It was my last race in black and green for Yamaha and the result today marks a positive end to my time with Tech3. This finish will keep my morale, as well as the team’s, up over the winter break and it’s a good way to end our journey together. We concluded the season as it began, which is in the top independent rider position, even if it has been a challenging year at times because unfortunately, we didn’t quite secure the best satellite placement in standings in the end. However, we always did our best and I have to thank the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team for giving their all in the years that we have worked together. Plus, I must say thanks to them for teaching me how to ride a MotoGP bike. We’ve shared some happy moments and some not so great ones. Our first year was excellent, but then we had a tough second one, yet in 2016 we have tried to handle the situations as best as we could. With regards to today’s race, I think the opening laps were crucial and sadly, we lost a lot of time there. After though, my rhythm was quite similar to the pace of the factory guys in front of me. For the entire GP, I had my brother behind me, but I was never sure if he was struggling to stay with me, or if he wanted to overtake. Fortunately, I kept him behind which allowed us to catch Dovi, who then acted as a barrier between me and Aleix and I made the most of this. Once again, I have to say thanks to everyone in the team for their work in the past three years and I will take a lot of memories of Tech3 away with me."