The Marquez qualities of MotoGP 2019's other breakthrough star

The title battle and a couple of milestone first-time victories aside, the 2019 MotoGP campaign is on course to leave its mark as the season of Fabio Quartararo's emergence - should the 20-year-old go on to deliver on his early promise.

Quartararo is now MotoGP's youngest-ever polesitter, and has repeatedly proven that his bursts of pace on the rookie-friendly Yamaha M1 are no fluke. As a result, he's gone from motorcycle grand prix racing's forgotten prodigy - after four middling years in the lower categories - to arguably its hottest property ahead of the anticipated 2021 silly season.

At the same time, for one reason or another, Quartararo has so far been somewhat short of actual standout race results, and even though he is clearly the big discovery of 2019, there's a rider two places higher in the standings whose early performances this season could prove just as significant. That rider is KTM's Pol Espargaro.

Espargaro has not reached the same heights as Quartararo in 2019. He's also seven years older, a known quantity in the MotoGP paddock, and one who's previously had - statistically, at least - better starts to a campaign than the 38 points he's accrued in the first six races this year.

Yet a glance at the fortunes of the other three KTM RC16 riders, who are yet to outqualify Espargaro or beat him in any of the races, goes a long way to show just how well he is going right now.

Johann Zarco, brought in as KTM's marquee signing and tipped by many to eclipse Espargaro as the RC16's benchmark rider, has been nowhere near, vocally unhappy with the bike to the point where KTM CEO Stefan Pierer felt the need to chastise him publicly.

The riders from Espargaro's former employer, Tech3, are now also part of the KTM camp, and have not challenged him either. Rookie Miguel Oliveira looked to be not far off after a promising debut but hasn't really kicked on since, while Hafizh Syahrin is only now climbing out of his huge early-season slump.

None of the three riders are comfortable with the RC16, and their points tallies combined are still just over half of Espargaro's. He has therefore made himself indispensable to a manufacturer that might be only fighting for single-digit scores right now, but is widely tipped to join MotoGP's elite sooner or later.

All through the pre-season and the first few races of 2019, you'd struggle to find a keener champion of the RC16 than Espargaro, and his patience was rewarded with a breakthrough sixth place at Le Mans - KTM's best MotoGP finish in the dry so far.

"We are going better and better," Espargaro says. "We knew that the first races of the season would be a bit difficult for us, especially the outside Europe races.

The RC16, in Espargaro's hands, is reliably closer to the front compared to other KTM riders

"Once we were going to Europe I felt a little bit better because the new stuff was coming from Mattighofen [KTM's base]. We had been waiting for it so much and when it arrived, I think we made a big step in the Jerez test. The bike changed quite a lot from the first race in Qatar - different settings on the engine, different stuff on the bike, it feels that everything is working well."

The most trumpeted upgrade in that time has been KTM switching to a carbon-fibre swingarm, following in the same vein as Honda and Ducati, yet Espargaro has been keen to point out that it has not been the main source of the team's progress.

"It's an improvement but I don't think it's a big improvement," he assesses. "This swingarm fits well with other stuff that we were trying - and because we didn't have this swingarm, we couldn't take profit of all of them.

"This is a small puzzle where you are putting the small pieces together, and when they are together, in line, they work. But when you just put the swingarm on, or just small separate pieces, they don't work.

"We needed to work a lot with this swingarm before putting it on, and the first time we did put it on, it was not working well."

KTM's progress has so far created an RC16 that can hold its own on the straights - even if it is lacking a bit in initial acceleration in second and third gear - and is impressive on corner entry due to its strong front end.

"I can say it's one of the best bikes on the grid in that area," Espargaro claims. "In Le Mans, when the grip was high, I was even catching [Marc] Marquez there, which is a good-performance Honda in the brakes."

The KTM is, of course, by no means a top MotoGP bike just yet. According to Espargaro, the package is still lacking when the rider requires a change of lean direction, and its turning ability through the corner after the brakes are released is a weakness.

It's also a machine clearly sensitive to conditions, which was something the last round at Mugello exposed - as, after he had been at the sharp end in practice, Espargaro struggled for grip when the temperatures picked up for the race, and finished only ninth despite the event's heavy attrition rate.

Still, the RC16, in Espargaro's hands, is reliably closer to the front and seeing his #44 near the top of the timing screens is no longer a big surprise - which it absolutely would've been in the last two years.

"I'm riding completely different than last year," he explains. "The confidence I now have on the bike is huge. And I'm happy, I'm happy with this bike.

"And when one rider is riding smooth, easy and happy on one bike, the lap times and results come. We are one with all the team, the bike is getting better and better, the positive vibe in the team is amazing. Every day I'm just looking forward to the next day, to jump on again, to enjoy riding the bike - and this is fantastic."

Results are hardly night and day different compared to 2018, but it's clear Espargaro is in a better position now than he was last year, during which his performances stagnated while injuries took their toll.

Over the first year and a bit of his time at KTM, he'd outperformed team-mate Bradley Smith convincingly enough to earn a contract extension - but Smith considerably closed the gap over the course of 2018.

At the same time, a big crash in pre-season that year was then followed by an accident in warm-up at Brno, which left Espargaro with a broken collarbone and was labelled a "pure mistake" by Beirer - one that threw off KTM's development plans (with test rider Mika Kallio also injured) and left it scrambling to find a stand-in.

"To feel what I'm feeling with KTM is amazing, and in the end this is some extra confidence and power in the bike" Pol Espargaro

Espargaro then suffered another collarbone fracture at Aragon, and looked to be heading into his new contract under serious pressure, only to ease it by scoring his and KTM's maiden podium in a bonkers wet season finale at Valencia.

This was something Espargaro had not managed in his three years on a Tech3-run Yamaha, also spent alongside Smith - who secured two premier-class rostrums for the privateer outfit. It was not that Espargaro was floundering, and a Yamaha satellite ride seemingly wasn't the 'golden ticket' it is now, but as the pendulum swung back and forth in his intra-team battle with Smith, neither had done enough to be really considered for the Yamaha works ride that would be vacated by Jorge Lorenzo.

But while the relative merits of a satellite M1 against a factory RC16 can be debated, Espargaro is convinced he is stronger now than he was during his Tech3 years, and puts that down to the level of support he is receiving.

"In Tech3, it was not Pol riding the bike," he suggests. "It was a guy who was fighting with the bike, trying to get something out of it, and honestly with no help.

"And now I'm riding with a bike that helps me a lot, with a lot of help behind me. The most important [thing] in this [MotoGP] world is to be fast, to fit to one bike - because we have seen in the past what happened with some riders who changed bikes. But the most important thing is to feel that you have someone behind helping you. That you are not making laps to make laps, that you are not there just on one side, just [for the factory] to take info when they need to.

"To feel what I'm feeling with KTM is amazing, and in the end this is some extra confidence and power in the bike."

When KTM announced that Zarco - who at that point was flying high at Tech3 - would be partnering Espargaro for 2019-20, the latter was reluctant to predict how their intra-team battle would pan out. He did say, however, that he would feel personal pride, having developed the RC16, if Zarco "jumps on the bike and does a good result, and maybe wins races and does podiums".

Right now, wins and podiums look far-fetched for Zarco. His KTM breakthrough appears far away still, and while he will continue to chip away, the fact that Beirer has already mooted the possibility of an early split suggests that a successful combination of Zarco and the RC16 is not seen as a certainty.

After speaking for much of the season so far about needing more from his bike, Zarco changed his public stance in Mugello somewhat, as he said Espargaro's milestone Le Mans finish was "a good confirmation" of what he needs to do.

"It's maybe the easiest solution, to work on the rider," Zarco says. "Technically we went to many extremes and never got great answers. So now I'm trying to improve myself and it's going to help me anyway for the future.

"I try to adapt myself to the bike as much as possible, to use different lines, different places to brake, different places to open the throttle, because it's all I have to do. The set-up of the bike, I cannot touch it anymore, because we have learned during these last five months that we don't have any solution.

"[Espargaro] has this good confidence. It means something is possible on the bike. [So] I try to change myself to do it - but I need to do things on the bike that in the last 10 years I never did, so it's pretty hard to understand everything in one weekend."

Zarco struggling to get his head around the RC16 is no indictment of his ability, as he is surely not the only obviously capable premier-class rider who would find the switch difficult.

In fact, according to a source at KTM, the view of the manufacturer's new test rider Dani Pedrosa is that only two riders are capable of getting the most of this package - these reportedly being Espargaro and Pedrosa's former team-mate Marquez.

This is corroborated by the comments of Tech3 rookie Oliveira, who has suggested that the KTM requires a Marquez-like aggressive style.

Right now, Espargaro is in an enviable position

When asked about Espargaro's current advantage, Oliveira says: "Obviously there are some things that at the moment Pol is able to do [that we aren't]. I don't know if [that is] entirely riding style or just with parts that he has different than us.

"But he's able to be more aggressive entering the corner, it seems like it's where we lose the most compared to him. When it comes to riding a bike, it is almost impossible to ride as another rider does. It's quite different and difficult to just be another rider. You can adjust some things but never completely change. I am not trying to be like him but ride as close to him as possible."

Zarco, meanwhile, even went as far as to evoke Casey Stoner's dominance over his fellow Ducati riders a decade ago, when the manufacturer's bikes were a far cry from the current much more compliant version of the Desmosedici.

Espargaro, for his part, feels that calling the RC16 'a Pol Espargaro bike' would be overstating the impact he's having on the development.

"I mean, I do what I can to improve the bike, and for sure my comments are to improve my bike, not to improve the other bikes," he says. "I think the bikes have a character - whatever you try to make a bike, if you try to do a Honda-Yamaha it's going to be impossible, and if you try to do a Yamaha-KTM is going to be impossible.

"My riding style was more on the side of the KTM than for example the Yamaha, and together with some changes we can go a little bit further. But in the team, it's been [test rider Alex] Hoffman, Mika Kallio, now Dani Pedrosa, Bradley Smith, Johann now, and the improvements on the bike - I don't make it on the factory.

"They make it because of all of us. We make some comments, they bring [changes] to us, and we try, and if we're faster, we're faster. So, I'm trying to be fast with the things they give to me, and it fits for me."

One level on which Zarco's comparison doesn't work is in terms of the trophy cabinet - Stoner, after all, brought home a world title and 23 of Ducati's 24 wins during his four-year stint, whereas Espargaro is yet to come anywhere near winning a race on the RC16.

But you wouldn't bet against KTM cracking MotoGP soon. The ambition is clearly there, as is the budget, the personnel and a history of overwhelming success in other motorcycle racing disciplines.

Maybe by the time KTM is an elite MotoGP force it will have lured over Marquez, or developed a super-talent in-house, or Zarco will have figured the RC16 out - putting Espargaro under pressure. But right now, he is in an enviable position, especially if his employer really is being advised that the only other rider who can do the job he's doing is the best, and probably most expensive, on the grid.

And while there's something to the Stoner parallel, another Ducati rider that Espargaro should be looking at is Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian once looked set to become a career mid-pack runner, only to spearhead Ducati's revival and transform his own fortunes in the process, claiming 12 of his 13 MotoGP wins in the last two years and a half.

A similar transformation for Espargaro looked improbable last year, but now it feels like a distinct possibility.