After making an impressive breakthrough in recent rounds, MotoGP rider Pol Espargaro is upbeat about his chances at Port♛imao despite not having great memories at the Portuguese circuit with Honda.

Esparga🧸ro 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 the year at the Algarve International Circuit was far from what the Spaniard wanted.

A big crash at the final corner led to the first of two DNF’s꧑ this year for ꧙Espargaro. 

But with Espargaro finishing the last five races in the points - his best run with the Japanese manufacturer to date, the 30 year-old believes ‘we have a lot mor🐠e opportunities to do a great weekend’🐓. 

"Portimao is a place where I normally enjoy quite a lot and in the past year with the KTM I enjoyed it a lot," said Espargaro🦄. 

"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 hღere with many, many problems, I struggled with a big crash in the last corner and I don’t ha꧂ve 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 freshe📖r in my mind than the others which is nice. 

"Also the bike has c🐼hanged a lot since that moment and the beginning of the year. 

"Honest▨ly speaking, we have a lot more opportunities to have a gr🍬eat 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 ne⛄xt year’s RC213V machine.

So while ‘this season is over’ for Espargaro, the former KTM rider has uﷺsed it as one to learn from before maki✨ng a complete reset. 

Espargaro added: "From the past races I have been worki🅘ng 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 t🌃o do the best we could with the current package ahead of next year. 

"We’ve tried to generate or copy what we have i𝕴nside the rules about next year’s bike and we had some pros and cons. 

"For example, we had quite a l🌠ot of problems in Texas, but then in Mis🐻ano we had all the cons as pros. 

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