Leader again
Jorge Martin is back, at least for one night, at the top of the MotoGP World Championship. The victory in the Sprint in Austria was anything but obvious and easy for the Spanish Aprilia champion, who nevertheless started from pole position. A very tough duel with Marc Marquez at the ‘S’ of turn 2A-B during the first lap in fact caused Martinator to fall to eighth place. From there, however, #89 started hammering, practically making a overtake per lap – always in turn 1 – and bringing himself back to second place behind an unbeatable Pedro Acosta. The KTM ‘shark’ however neutralized himself, crashing spectacularly three laps from the checkered flag.
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“I am very happy – Martin commented after the race to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP – obviously we won because Pedro fell, this must be said first of all. I feel very sorry for him. I found myself behind, eighth. Then I went wide and Pecco had also passed me. At that point I went slowly and caught them one by one. Every time I reached another rider it was a bit harder to overtake than the previous one, because each time they were faster. But I had an incredible pace, the braking into turn 1 was really incredible. I felt good and I think I was very smart, because I really exploited the maximum of the tire for the Sprint. Hopefully tomorrow we will understand well how to use the other tire, but I am very happy“.
Some ‘lessons’ for the GP
Tomorrow the compound will certainly change, since the long race should be run by everyone with the medium rear tire: “Today with the soft I felt good on a track where there isn’t much grip – Martin explained – let’s say that on other tracks with the soft I suffer more. Today I managed to get the maximum out of the Aprilia. Tomorrow with the medium I think I will be more consistent. Today I suffered a bit with the front. I think I was the one who did the most laps [with the medium in free practice] and it is a more consistent tire. Surely it is harder to stop on the straight, but then it turns very well in mid-corner and will definitely lead to less wear, which is one of the biggest problems here”.
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Martin then returned to talk about what happened at the start, first emphasizing that without the duel with Marquez he might have been able to escape with Acosta and then throwing a jab at the reigning world champion, in what seems to be the main challenge for the title: “Today Pedro definitely had a bit more – Martin said – and then for him in the end it’s ‘all or nothing’ and this will surely be a factor tomorrow as well. But I think I could have gone away with him, that’s for sure. Marquez? We saw the overtake, it was a bit on the limit, close to going off. Anyway, I managed to keep the bike inside the white lines: the problem was that when I wanted to change direction the bike closed a bit and there I started losing positions. At that moment I didn’t lose concentration even though I was a bit nervous about that maneuver – Martin concluded – but in the end I expected it, I knew he wanted to try. I hope tomorrow to be a bit smarter“. Marquez is warned.
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