‘Our potential is incredibly high’, but two ‘mistakes’ cost Espargaro

Pol Espargaro leaves Qatar sitting tenth in the championship standings after a 13th place finish in the second MotoGP Grand Prix in Doha. 

However, there will be mixed feelings for the former KTM rider who has impressed in the races, but struggled to get the most from his Honda on Saturday’s.

With the absence of Marc Marquez for the opening two races, it’s meant that Espargaro has had to lead the team in his first year with the Japanese manufacturer. 

After two qualifying performances where he has described ‘not feeling the limit’ and ‘over pushing’ as the sensations when doing a time attack, the races have been where the 2013 Moto2 champion has shined, but unfortunately left himself too much to do. 

It looked like a second top ten was on the cards with only a few laps remaining of Sunday’s second race in Qatar, but two late mistakes cost Espargaro any chance of that happening. 

"This race we once again showed that our potential is incredibly high, our pace was really strong especially during the middle and the end of the race, but I made two big mistakes which ruined our chances," said the Spaniard. 

"We could have been fighting for a lot more, especially without the second error. 

"We have again been able to finish close to the winner despite this, but I am left wondering what could have been. 

"These two races have both shown that our potential on the Honda is very, very high but we still need to work on a couple of things including Qualifying. There’s more to come, we will try again in Portimão."