Espargaro: Finally we start the season!

It’s a rare moment to catch Pol Espargaro as anything other than bubbling with excitement and ahead of Sunday’s season opening Qatar Grand Prix the former Moto2 champion can barely contain that excitement.

“Finally we can start the season,” exclaimed Espargaro. “It’s been a long time without bikes! The testing isn’t the same so it’s good to start the season again. I don’t know what to expect in the early races because I don’t know what to expect for each race yet from the Suzuki’s and Ducati’s. They have used the soft tyre in the tests so we don’t know how their pace will be in the race. We need to know what they can do in the races so that we can see if they are similar to last year or if they are much better. Our expectations will depend on where Suzuki and Ducati are this year.”

Now in his second year in the class Espargaro will be trying to back up the form that he showed last year, including a front row start at Le Mans, but he acknowledged that starting the year healthy will make a big difference following a difficult winter ahead of his rookie campaign.

“I feel much more confident compared to last year. In Qatar I came with a fractured collarbone and I wasn’t really confident but now I’m happy on the bike. We have a better feeling now and more expectations.”