Half throttle return for Pol Espargaró on a day when Bezzecchi took pole position

Pol Espargaró is very clear: for now, it is better to go practically at half throttle. The Gas Gas team driver, who suffered a spectacular accident at the Portuguese Grand Prix that has kept him in the dry dock until the arrival of the British Grand Prix, does not want a new mishap to take him away from the circuits again. At Silverstone, on a day marked by rain, he had a discreet training session that took him to fifteenth place on the starting grid, just behind a Marc Márquez who still hasn't raised his head and two places behind his brother Aleix.. Pole position, meanwhile, went to Marco Bezzechi, Jack Miller will start from second place and Álex Márquez, who also won the sprint race, will do so from third. To such an extent that, as he has confessed, his height has been reduced by 1.5 centimeters due to a fracture in one of his dorsal vertebrae.. Being able to run in Silverstone is quite a liberation, after a first moment in which he even seriously considered withdrawing. In the end, his desire to run again has been able to with everything, although he is very aware of his current limitations.. “I'm going to need some time to recover the speed, but I'm going to give it my all,” he said through his social networks last week, before learning the final opinion.

Going step by step, something that may seem like a paradox if we are talking about people as accustomed to high speeds as Moto GP riders, is what you need right now. «Technically, my brain is not capable of assimilating so much information. These bikes run a lot and everything happens so fast that the brain is not able to understand everything as quickly as it should. You want to brake later, but the brain won't let you. You tell yourself 'I'm going to brake there', but when you realize it, your hand is already grabbing the brake. It's a bit of a strange feeling, of not understanding speed and all the power, and everything overwhelms you.. You are a little behind, against the clock, learning everything, and it is difficult, because these bikes run a lot”, he assured after free practice last Friday.

The good condition of your machine, however, gives you a lot of confidence. “Although it may not seem like it right now, there is a lot of room for improvement and the bike works. It's incredible how fast she is on the straight, how she runs and how smooth she is under braking.”. As he already announced on Friday, he took the sprint race calmly. The firm, very humid after a morning in which the rain was again the protagonist in Silverstone, did not invite you to do anything else. Of course, as was his wish, he managed to finish it. Something that, as he has admitted these days, is not very clear that he can also do in the race this Sunday.

Precisely, by a physicist who, after the harsh punishment suffered in Portimao, does not quite accompany him as much as he would like. Not surprisingly, since then he has had to watch from the outside, as one more spectator, up to seven Grands Prix. With 11 more rounds still to go, until the championship ends on November 26 at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, the most important thing is to be able to be on the bike in all of them.