This will be a particularly intense weekend for Pol Espargaró, with the rider stepping down from the role of full-time rider in the category to make way for Pedro Acosta at GASGAS Tech3 in 2024. The Spaniard believes it will be an emotional round, but it will be important not to let himself be carried away by the feelings.
In the preview of the Valencia Grand Prix, #44 started by saying: ‘I feel some butterflies in my stomach […]. It’s the last race of the year and maybe my last race as a full-time rider in MotoGP, it’s something special’, before talking about some of the emotions he admits to letting out:
– Maybe some tears. I’m not the kind of guy who usually controls his emotions in a cold way, I let them flow, but if that happens with my team and my guys, it’s something natural. It’s 15 years of racing, maybe more than that, it’s crazy, it’s a huge number of races and many experiences that I’ve lived, especially in Valencia as the last race of the year. It’s been many years.
However, Espargaró intends not to let himself be carried away by what he feels, but rather to remain completely professional until the last second: ‘I don’t want my emotions to control my weekend, I have to be as mechanical as possible, professional, and try to do everything as it should be done and I think I can be good here. I’m determined to have fun this weekend’.
