It’s going to be a particularly intense weekend for Pol Espargaro, with the rider stepping down from his full-time role in the category so that Pedro Acosta can join GASGAS Tech3 in 2024. The spaniard believes it will be a particularly emotional round, but that it will be important not to get carried away.
In his preview of the Valencian Community GP, the #44 began by saying: ‘I feel some butterflies in my stomach […]. It’s the last GP of the year and maybe my last GP as a full-time MotoGP rider, so it’s something special‘ before talking about some of the emotions he admits to letting out:
– Some crying, maybe. I’m not a guy who normally controls his emotions in a cold way, I let it 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 a lot of experiences I’ve had, especially in Valencia as the last race of the year. That’s a lot of years.
Espargaro’s intention, however, is not to let his feelings get the better of him, but to remain totally 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 fine here. I’m committed to having fun this weekend’.