The action returns as MotoGP testing begins in Qatar. Pol Espargaro enjoys his first contact with the Repsol Honda and Stefan Bradl and is constantly improving.
Strong winds swept across the Losail International Circuit as the first day of official testing began ahead of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship season. While much of the field waited for the conditions to settle down, the Repsol Honda Team tried to make the most of the available track time.
Pol Espargaro was the first full-time rider on the track who wanted to test the Honda RC213V for the first time. After completing his instillation round, Espargaro returned to the pits for his initial debriefing and setup adjustments. Short runs would be the order of the day for much of the day as the 2013 Moto2 World Champion adapted to life in the colors of the Repsol Honda team. Espargaro improved his time on every lap and achieved a best time of 1’55.878 after 68 laps on board the Honda.
Times were not the focus of the day. Espargaro and his team worked to get comfortable on the bike and improve his feel for the Honda RC213V.
After Stefan Bradl had a successful day of running the day before during the shakedown, he was back on the right track. The experienced German was quick from the start, led the test start and stayed in the top three for most of the run. Bradl’s 1’54.943 finished the evening as the second fastest and was 0.256 seconds behind the best time.