Pol Espargaro will join the MotoGP grid for the second time in 2025 this weekend at Balaton Park to replace countryman Maverick Viñales; the current Red Bull KTM Tech3 racer will continue to recover from his recently operated left shoulder.
Espargaro, the 34-year-old Red Bull KTM test rider and former multiple Grand Prix winner, helped the Tech3 crew at the recent Czechia Grand Prix and scored 9th position in both the Sprint and the GP race at Brno. He also recently completed a private test at Balaton Park (south of Budapest). 2025 is Pol’s twelfth year of MotoGP participation and competition.
Pol Espargaro: “It’s tough for Maverick to miss another race but we saw in Austria that he needs more time for recovery and it’s important to think about MotoGP when you are 100%. I know this only too well! I repeat again what I said in Czechia: he's doing an amazing job for the factory, and he deserves to continue enjoying the bike, as the other guys have done. I hope he’s back asap. Right now we focus on Hungary and it's not easy to change the test rider ‘chip’ for the MotoGP rider ‘chip’, with the level the category has right now and with the pace the others have. We’ve had some tests recently and we can see the project is making some great progress. I’m happy to be able to help out the team and the factory again by racing this weekend and, as always, it will bring some value to our work behind the scenes and at the races. We’ll need to change our mentality and get ready for this new challenge in Balaton Park.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Unfortunately Maverick was not ready to make the whole GP weekend in Red Bull Ring but it was positive that we could see where he is with his recovery and we know he’ll soon be back at 100%. In the meantime, we are very lucky to have a rider and a person like Pol in our structure that can step in to help and made a strong contribution. It’s important for our development, not only for the results at the track. We need to make a good plan to get the maximum from the opportunity, and I want to thank Pol for his flexibility and for the big effort we know he will bring to Hungary.”