Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) produced KTM’s best qualifying result since the 2017 Australian GP at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana after claiming P6 in Q2.
Qualification is over at #valencia #motogp and @polespargaro sets a fantastic 6th position after clocking his best lap on the seventh circulation of eight and just 0.2 of a second away from the Pole effort #readytorace pic.twitter.com/yHr7fu6t5t
— KTM Factory Racing (@KTM_Racing) November 17, 2018
The Spaniard has finished inside the top ten in every session this weekend, with a great qualifying session capping off a successful start to his Valencia GP. And with the conditions set to be wet for tomorrow – like they have been for most of the weekend – can Espargaro convert a P6 starting slot into a good result?
“I think that when we are good on wet, we are normally good in dry. Until this weekend, I hadn’t ridden in the wet since a long time ago, plus all the injuries, so I wasn’t convinced that I could do something nice,” explained the number 44 rider.
“I started with good results, top 10 every session. In the dry, I thought it would change but actually, we improved. I did third in FP4, maybe pushing more than others but we finished there and I found some light in the sky… I had some ideas that I could do well and we did well. The team deserve it after a good season. We saw the light, we got a good result, but the race is tomorrow and we need to keep working.”
The younger Espargaro brother has had a season blighted by injury, with his Brno crash resulting in him missing the Czech GP, Austria GP, British GP and seriously affecting his San Marino GP. Then, a crash in Aragon resulted in Espargaro re-injuring his collarbone injury sustained in the Czech Republic. Now back to nearly full fitness, can he end his season on a high on home soil?
“I feel confident in the wet. We’ve been in the top 10 all weekend, if it’s wet we can maybe get a bit more than in the dry,” mused Espargaro. “In qualifying, the track was a little bit tricky and maybe for that, we get something else ahead of the rest. I just want to wake up tomorrow morning and see what’s going on in the warm-up and then go ahead with the race.”
With rain forecast, will we be seeing Espargaro fighting it out at the front? Let’s hope so! Tune in for the race at 14:00 local time (GMT +1) to catch the final battle of 2018.