Today’s Emilia-Romagna MotoGP was a day of firsts for🅺 Pol Espargaro as he claimed a first🗹 podium for Honda and his first ever second place. 

While the Spanish rider claimed six podiums during his four years with KTM - the most of any rider for the Au❀strian manufacturer, ܫnone were higher than P3 until today as Espargaro contributed to a Repsol Honda 1-2. 

Like team-mate Marc Marquez, both riders were behind the pre-race favorit♎es Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia before they c🐠rashed out. 

Outside of today’s podium and his Silverstone pole position, battling at the sharp end has been a real struggle for the 30 year-old. Which i𒁏s why today’s result was called a ‘bubble of ♐oxygen’ for him and the team.

Speaking after his first rostrum finish as a factory Honda man, Espargaro added: "This f💃eels so good! It feels so good after a tough season for sure. We had a lot of ups and downs; som𝐆e good races but not enough, and some very bad moments. 

"I didn’t give up and I was pushing so much the whole year, working ha🍌rder🦩 and harder to try and get something else from it. 

"Finally, talkin🎶g about me, about my ego, it’s nice to be here as my best result ever in MotoGP with a Honda feels so good. ꦕ;

"But especially for the entire Honda manufacturer because thesꩵe guys have struggl⛦ed so much with the Covid time. 

"I know from my time with European manufactures that they were not struggling as much as Japanese ones, and finally to be 1-2 in one of the toughest seasons for Honda in history feels so great🌸. 

"It's a♕ bubble of oxygen for everybody and is going to help us to work for next year and to try and makeꩲ this happen more often."

While Espargaro was able to come home a safe second following Miguel Oliveira’s crash whilst behind him with a few laps left, the Spaniard꧂ was unable to rival Marqu🎃ez due to losing too much time early on.

Espargaro was caught up behind Oliveira and unable to make a pass for several laps due to struggling with a heavier ꦇmachine. 

"I knew I had a good rhythm, I⛎ knew I co☂uld do a very fast race because in the test I was fast. But, the problem is I’m not able to overtake at the beginning with a full tank as easily as Marc can do," added Espargaro. 

"He knows much more about tꦚhe bike on the limit and on the brakes. I didn’t want to make a mistake at the beginning of the race because that is the worse thing that can happen in the race, especially if you have the chance to do something great as we did today. 

"Today I was behind Migu🔯el [Oliveira] and I saw these guys pushing at🥀 the beginning and I said ‘no way’ [laughs]. 

"They were going so fast and they were creating a gap to Miguel. I was there righ🉐t behind him and I knew I was faster, but I couldn’t overtake and I took too long. When I did overtake it was already one and a half/two seconds and I couldn’t recover."