A🌱fter making an impressive breakthrough in recent rounds, MotoGP rider Pol Espargaro is upbeat about his chances at Portimao des🐲pite not having great memories at the Portuguese circuit with Honda.

Espargaro took his first podium of the year at Misano two weeks ago - also happened to be his first for Honda, however, April’s third round of t📖he year at the Algarve International Ci꧟rcuit was far from what the Spaniard wanted.

A big crash at the fဣinal corner led to the first of two DNF’s this year for Es✱pargaro. 

But with Espargaro finishing the last five races in the p🥃oints - his best run with the Japanese manufacturer to date, the 30 year-old belie🥃ves ‘we have a lot more opportunities to do a great weekend’. 

"Portimao is a place wher🎉e I normally enjoy quite a lot and in the past year with the KTM I enjoyed it a lot," said Espargaro.&nbs🦩p;

"Sure, it was not amazingly good, but it was a decent race and I almost🙈 finished on the podium (2020). 

"But in the beginning 🥃of the year we came here wܫith many, many problems, I struggled with a big crash in the last corner and I don’t have the best of memories with the Honda here. 

"Anyway, I came here in the summer break to train so I have the circuit layout a little bit fresher in my mind than the others which is n🦩ice. 

"Also the bike has changed a lot since that moment and the⛄ beginn♓ing of the year. 

"Honestly speaking, we have a lot more opportunities to have a grea꧋t weekend compared to what we did at the start of this season."

As hinted at by Espargaro, the recent improvements have come from changes that are specific to trying various parts for next year’s RC213V📖 machine.

So while ‘this season is over’ for Espargaro, the former 𒁏KTM rider has used it as one to le♏arn from before making a complete reset. 

Espargaro added: "From the past ꦕraces I have been working in that 🥂direction (2022) - thinking about that. Of course, this season is over for me and has been for many races. 

"So, I started to think about the future with Honda and we have tried to do the best we could with the current package ahead of next🃏 year. 

"We’ve tried to genera🤪te or copy what w♏e have inside the rules about next year’s bike and we had some pros and cons. 

"For example, we had quite a lot of problems in Texas, but then in🌼 Misano we had all t🍸he cons as pros. 

"Thinking about next year, I🎀'm really looking forward to just making a reset with all the experience and knowledge that I now have with the Honda."