‘Still a lot to learn’ for Pol Espargaro

Pol Espargaro was delighted to have achieved his main aim of the week at the Sepang Official MotoGP™ Test: to avoid crashing. At the same time, the new Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider admits that there is still a long way to go.

Espargaro joins Bradley Smith at Tech3 for 2014, stepping up to Herve Poncharal’s team in the premier class as the reigning Moto2™ World Champion.

“I am happy because we have achieved our target, which is not to crash – it was not easy!” Espargaro laughed at Sepang on Thursday. “It is not easy to stay on the bike every lap and I made some mistakes. To do the lap time we did is so good; we managed a good rhythm and everybody is happy, so me too.

“We have to improve a lot, a lot, a lot. We have to know more about the electronics, the traction control system, the anti-wheelie and how to carry the mid-corner speed of Lorenzo and Valentino (Rossi). We have a lot to learn and are just starting, but this wasn’t a bad start over these three days so I am happy with the result.”

Espargaro ended the three-day gathering in ninth position with a personal best lap time of 2’00.655 – 1.1 seconds down on pace-setting Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) but just 52 thousandths of a second slower than team-mate Smith.