Pol Espargaro: It was a big one...
Just a few hours after being confirmed as remaining at Tech 3 Yamaha for 2016, Pol Espargaro was launched into the air by a massive highside in Friday MotoGP practice at Indianapolis.
"Well, it was a big one," he confirmed. "The problem there is that you are off of the bike. When the bike is sliding because you are so down on the track, you don't feel that the bike is sliding so much. The traction control is working good, but there, I think I gave too much throttle. The traction control didn't accept it and I fly. But, fortunately, the bike is not really damaged; also me, so no problem."
Espargaro thankfully walks away from the massive highside #MotoGP FP2 #IndyGP pic.twitter.com/XtzLPnonKs-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) August 7, 2015
"I think we did a good job," Espargaro said. "Even in one lap - the fast lap - I had some mistakes. But overall the bike is working so good. Normally here we have some grip problems and today I felt so much grip. That is the main target for the race. I'm happy because finally we get some grip and we are working good on the good line on this track."
Team-mate Bradley Smith, who made his frustration at the wait for his own 2016 deal clear on Thursday, was just 0.112s slower than Espargaro for ninth place.
"I thought I could've been better. I got held up in the first couple of laps on my new tyre. So an idea is that I had another 0.3, nearly 0.4s, which would've put me fifth," he said. "So that's nice to have inside my pocket.
"This morning the track was definitely very green but then this afternoon I felt much, much better. We were able to try both the hard and soft front tires and also the rear tires, as well. So we have a good direction, but tomorrow the track will improve some more and we can get a bit more information about race setup.
"Like we see on the time sheets, the Yamaha's more competitive in these types of conditions, as well. We're happy with how everything's going so far."
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
