Espargaro Earns Sixth In Red Flagged Algarve GP

A pair of consistent rides saw both Pol Espargaro and Stefan Bradl pick up points in Portugal, Espargaro earning a fourth straight top-ten finish and continuing his strong end to 2021.

Grande Premio do Algarve MotoGP 2021   Round 17

The MotoGP World Championship’s second visit to the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve was unfortunately cut short with two laps remaining in the race due to an on-track incident. Both riders involved fortunately avoiding any serious injury.

Pol Espargaro made a strong start from the second row of the grid on his Repsol Honda Team RC213V and moved himself up to fifth on the opening lap.

Unfortunately, near contact with Iker Lecuona at the start of the second lap sent both riders wide and forced Espargaro to drop from the leading group. From here it became a recovery race as Espargaro regularly matched the pace of the leaders on his way through the field.

With just a handful of laps remaining, Espargaro found himself back with Zarco, Martin and Quartararo, eventually passing Martin just before the red flag.

Taking sixth as the red flag came out, Espargaro converted his grid position to his ultimate race position despite the early incident. After struggling during the previous round in Portugal and suffering a DNF, Espargaro’s entire weekend was a demonstration of his progress over the season.

Now on a total of 100 points, Espargaro is tenth in the MotoGP World Championship standings and just six points behind Viñales in ninth with a single round to go.

Read the full race report with more photos HERE