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Pol Espargaró completed his first day of qualifying with the Repsol Honda Team this Saturday, registering a best time of 1:53.930. The Spanish rider, who thanks to his lap time from yesterday went directly into Q2, improved his pace and his feeling on the Honda RC213V, and claimed 12th on the starting grid for the first race of the year.
Teammate Stefan Bradl failed to secure a position in Q2. With a best time of 1:53.995, he will begin the Qatar GP from 17th place.
Tomorrow, at 7pm (CET), the first race of the 2021 season will take place at the Losail International Circuit.
Rider statements
“At the end our feeling was good but during the day we were looking for solutions, this is can happen when you are still new to a bike. FP4 was not a good session and we were working on stopping the bike better. But we reset, tomorrow we go again no matter what and we fight. I think we can be there in the race. It was not a good day today, but I feel ready for a good race. We need to have a good morning, but I have the feeling it will be a good race and I am going to go for it.”
“The work is always continuing; in MotoGP you can’t stop. We have had a busy day today and made some more progress. In Free Practice 3 and 4 I was feeling quite good, and our race pace is looking better than where we have qualified. There is still some more performance to gain over one lap with a new tyre. No matter what we will keep improving during Warm Up and fight forward in the race to gain as many positions as possible. The season has just started.”