MotoGP Catalunya: Espargaro expecting ‘very difficult race’

Aleix Espargaro’s dream MotoGP weekend continued at Barcelona as the Aprilia rider claimed two all-time circuit records on his way to pole position.

The Spaniard’s 1’38.742 lap well and truly stole the show in front of his home support, three-hundredths of a second fastest than his morning record from FP3. With his regular podium sitters Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo joining him on the front row for Sunday’s 24-lap Catalan GP.

“Yeah I’m very happy, the first part of the job is done,” Espargaro said from his home paddock on Saturday.

“It was a hard, a very, very hard qualifying. I would say that the most difficult qualifying lap that I did so far this season, because the track was super slippery.

“I wasn’t sure to go under the lap time that I did this morning in FP3. This morning came quite easy actually, I just used one soft rear tyre, but in qualifying was very, very slippery and I didn’t really enjoy the lap because I Iose the front a couple of times. I also had a lot of highside so I really riding the limit of the bike.

“But finally I did the last two corners, I was very, very fast, so very happy to close it. When I enter in the straight, I brake like ‘woa, you close it and you did not crash’ which was already a victory and then when I saw P1! I was very happy because is the home GP, so far in the weekend it’s great.

“Actually the most important part will be tomorrow so feet on the ground for the moment but we were doing a good job - not just for the pole position, which I’m very happy but especially on the free practice four where we put a good pace,” he continued. “We did a good job on the rear tyre because here tomorrow it will not be just to be super fast it’s going to be also to manage the rear tyre so to