KTM test rider Pol Espargaro loses a good 30 seconds to the winner at the guest start in Austria – the Spaniard had hoped for more from his guest start
Three wildcard riders competed in the guest MotoGP race in Austria. KTM, Honda and Aprilia used the Grand Prix in Spielberg to gain experience under race conditions. Pol Espargaro rode a new version of the KTM RC16, which had some eye-catching updates, such as aero elements mounted on the swingarm and a new exhaust
On Friday, there were signs that Espargaro could be a possible podium candidate. However, after he was stranded with a defect in practice and missed out on a place in the top 10, not everything went according to plan. The Spaniard ultimately finished the Grand Prix in P11, 30.5 seconds behind the leader.
“I expected a bit more,” admits Espargaro. “Probably all the non-Ducati riders expected a bit more. My job was to ride as fast as possible to gather information. I didn’t want to crash in order to collect data that we could compare with the tests.”
“Our results were not as good as in the test,” Espargaro states and blames the differences on the Pirelli tire wear that was on the track after the Moto3 and Moto2 races.
Technical problems with the development KTM set Pol Espargaro back
The new KTM prototype still caused a stir. However, the reliability of the new development was not yet convincing. “We had major problems with both bikes on Friday. That’s why I only had one bike on Saturday and Sunday. We finished two days with one bike and didn’t make any mistakes. That’s important, the test team did a good job,” he praised his crew.
Espargaro recognizes positive signs with the new bike, even if the race performance was not satisfactory. “It’s certainly faster on one lap,” Espargaro notes. “My ideal lap time was very fast. That’s very interesting.”
“Brad (Binder), Jack (Miller), Augusto (Fernandez) and Pedro (Acosta) should be at least three tenths of a second faster than me. That shows that the bike works well when the grip is right,” said the KTM test rider happily.
But when the grip started to deteriorate, things didn’t go as hoped. “When the grip dropped, we had some problems that we hadn’t expected. But even then, the acceleration was very good when the bike was upright. That caused some problems for the other riders,” said Espargaro.
The KTM test program will continue at the private test in Misano. Dani Pedrosa will then take over the KTM RC16
