Pol Espargaro aims to calm aggressive style

Treat a lady bad and you’ll never be happy.

The same applies to a 1000cc MotoGP bike, according to reigning Moto2 world champion Pol Espargaro, who has found the switch to MotoGP in 2014 a tough transition.

The Spaniard’s best result in the opening four rounds was a sixth in Texas and like many riders coming up from Moto2, including Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Bradley Smith, he has found it hard to tame his aggressive riding style.

“I’m too aggressive on the throttle and I want to be too fast in the corner. It makes no sense to open full throttle when the traction control is on because you won’t gain any metres. But in your mind you are thinking to push more and that’s a big problem for me because at the end of the race I have no grip left,“ said the 22-year-old.

Espargaro added: “I’m nervous with the bike and I’m fighting it. The bike is like a lady and if you are fight with your lady all of the time you will never be happy and have a good relationship.

“And I have to ride the bike smooth like Jorge (Lorenzo) and Valentino (Rossi). Compared to those two I’m getting too much spin and that’s the main problem. In the last few laps of the race I feel lost because I have no grip because I waste too much of the tyre. I try to push too much and it is not the way to ride in MotoGP. If you ride the Yamaha slowly you are fast.”

Espargaro’s first taste of MotoGP has been tougher than he had anticipated and he told MCN: “I expected before I started that MotoGP would be very difficult but when you first ride the bike you think with all the electronics it is perhaps not going to be as difficult as you first thought.

“But once you start the races it is so difficult because you have a lot of work to do in a short space of time and it is difficult to adjust to the setting.

“Sometimes after a good practice in the race you are lost and the bike is not what you expect and I need experience to understand how to ride on the limit. And sometimes when you have new tyres on and a full tank it feels like I am riding a different bike. It is so difficult to understand what happens and how to ride.”