All the pilots who have inherited the motorcycle that Dani Pedrosa left free at Honda after the 2018 course they have collided with a difficult machine to tame. None of them have come close to the results of the Castellar driver: 31 wins and three runners-up in 13 seasons. Far from those of Marc Márquez, six-time MotoGP champion. This is not like Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, with which any member of the grid would be able to achieve a victory. No. The RC213V is something else, a motorcycle with obvious possibilities, but complicated. None of the three successors he has not even equaled Pedrosa’s worst year, when he finished 11th in the World Cup. And we are talking about illustrious names like that of Jorge Lorenzo, who was excited about his arrival at the Japanese brand as much as it disappointed later, with no place in the top ten. Then disembarked Alex Marquez, who arrived with the aura of a Moto2 champion, but with the pressure of his surname. So far he has been the only one capable of getting on the podium, twice.
Now this Pol Espargaró, who came with the credit of his progression in KTM, his two poles and five podiums in 2020. Pol seemed like the ideal choice, but he hasn’t taken the bike either, so far. Eleven grand prizes and fifteen falls later, the youngest of the Espargaró has achieved his first great result: pole position in the British GP. It has its crumb that it was just after hitting rock bottom in Austria. According to his words, there was a “motivational talk”, with overtones of “anger”, from the team leader, Alberto Puig. The chip change has occurred at Silverstone, although Pol, who has celebrated it as “a victory”, assures that this Sunday he will face the race still in a “learning position”. At least he has already convinced himself that it can be done. And that’s a big leap.