Pol Espargaro: It’s opened my eyes. I need to copy Marquez, I need the same bike

Marc Marquez's Sachsenring MotoGP victory was an eye-opening experience for Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro, who says he will 'copy' Marquez's bike spec and settings from now on to remove any 'excuses'.

Honda hadn’t taken a podium this season until Marquez, still recovering from last year's serious arm injuries, stormed to an eleventh German Grand Prix victory in a row.

Espargaro was the next best RCV rider in tenth place, but revealed that he's still not using the same chassis as Marquez.

While Espargaro, new to the factory Honda team this season, appeared content to follow a different direction, presumably as advised by Honda, Sunday's result changes everything.

"From now on I think I’m going to just try to copy Marc’s setting, Marc’s chassis, because he’s using different than us," Espargaro said. "I’m going to copy his line [direction]. Until that moment, we were not very far away from rhythm, from lap times, but this race, it’s a step.

"For sure, I’m very happy for the team and for all the guys that have been working so much, even for Marc. But the point is that for sure Marc shows the performance today of the bike, and I need to be on the level.

"So the only way I see, is to copy his setting, his bike, his chassis as soon as possible, and then go in his line [direction[ and from that moment on, there is no excuses. I need to do what he does, otherwise I’m too slow for the bike. That’s it."

While LCR Honda riders Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez were known to be swapping between a 2020 and 2021 chassis, it was thought that all four Honda riders were now on the same package.

"No," replied Espargaro, when asked to clarify if all the Hondas had the same chassis.

The former KTM rider explained he had been happy to use a different spec to Marquez until the Sachsenring race, since his pace had been close to that of the #93.

"Honestly, I was following my line [bike direction] because I felt it was good until today’s race. On the time attack it was not too bad. I was fast, even on the race pace, but after today’s result…"

Espargaro emphasised that he's not saying it was Marquez's bike that made all the difference on Sunday, but that in order to be "closer" to Marquez he needs to be able to directly compare himself with what is now a proven 2021 race-winning rider-bike combination.

"It’s not that Marc is winning because of the bike, but I'm saying that to understand I need to do what he is doing, I need to use exactly the same bike," Espargaro said.

"So, like that, I’m going to understand exactly what he’s doing and how I need to ride this bike on the 100% level as he does.

"Today was the first time I lost so much time to my team-mate. I think never in my life have I lost 14 seconds to my team-mate. It’s opened my eyes. I need to work harder.

"I need to copy what he’s doing because he showed me that this bike can win, and I was not able to. So from now on, I’m going to try to be closer to him than what I’ve been until now."

Sunday's race was all the more disappointing for Espargaro since he had been second fastest in morning warm-up.

"Today my problem is that I couldn’t overtake. I was super pissed off because I was losing some corner speed, and then on the brakes I was catching up all the difference, but it was not enough to catch back and then overtake," he said.

"So, I did a bad race. I’m not happy with the result. I’m not happy with the pace. The feelings were not good. I was struggling quite a lot. It’s the first time in a race with the Honda I cannot be close to what I did in the practice.

"This morning I was second. My feeling was very good. I was hoping for a good race, but then the start was a mess and then after I couldn’t overtake. Everything from the beginning until the end, it was not good at all. So, for sure, I’m super disappointed.

"I was not turning. I was not griping on the edge, and then spinning a lot when the bike was completely straight. Then because I was behind a lot of guys, the front tyre becomes too hot.

"Also for sure the three crashes during this weekend did not help. I had a huge missing of feeling in the fast corners with full lean angle. Guys were coming inside me and I just couldn’t protect the inside.

"A very bad Sunday, honestly. I cannot take anything positive from it."

Nakagami finished five-seconds behind Espargaro in 13th place, while Alex Marquez crashed out early on after tangling with Danilo Petrucci.