Pol Espargaró was the 15th classified in the Malaysian MotoGP, having to resist a tough race to get a podium. The conditions in Sepang and a less than ideal first lap made the task of the GasGas Tech3 rider much more difficult.
The Spaniard admitted that he was very physically exhausted, still feeling the effects of the injuries suffered in Portugal last March: ‘Wow, competing with this humidity and heat, with these bikes… maybe I feel it more because I’m having more difficulties, because I have many weaknesses in my body that I haven’t recovered from after the accident. Normally I don’t feel them, but I feel them particularly when the conditions are so intense and on the limit. So, I feel that my body is not well, so maybe I have more difficulties than others. […] It is what it is, the race was very, very tough‘.
On the other hand, Espargaró said that having to recover from the loss of positions early on was another difficulty: ‘I also had a problem at the beginning of the race. I had a big contact with Joan Mir in the last corner and lost all the positions – I was overtaken even by [Álvaro] Bautista, and I needed to recover. I overtook the RNF MotoGP, [Takaaki] Nakagami, Bautista. Then I lost a lot of time. I caught up to my teammate, got to his wheel, but it was too late in the race, I had a very worn tire. In addition, we have this problem in the front where the pressure rises a lot and then it is very difficult to overtake. So I just stayed there until the end of the race‘.
