MotoGP | Martin: “Thinking of being the leader or behind is useless”

Jorge Martin is only half smiling at the end of the first day of practice for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix. The Prima Pramac Racing rider, who arrived in Misano as the world championship leader with a 23-point advantage over Pecco Bagnaia, started the weekend off on the right foot, being the fastest in the first free practice session, where he immediately found a great feeling with his Desmosedici GP.

This, therefore, is an excellent indication in terms of the race, but things then got worse when it was time to mount the tires for the afternoon time attack. The rider from Madrid, in fact, lost the thread with the good feelings of the morning and in this way he dropped back to third position, 281 thousandths behind the reigning world champion, who surprisingly rose to the front despite not being 100% after the accident in Aragon. Between the two title contenders then also slipped Marc Marquez, still in great form after his return to victory last Sunday.

“This morning I felt really good, I couldn’t believe I was so fast, but in the afternoon we put the soft tyre and the problems started. Then we improved little by little, but we still have to find solutions. We are changing things, but I still don’t feel comfortable. But in the morning it was all too good to be true,” Martin said when he met with journalists at the end of the day.

Last year his comeback on Bagnaia began right here in Misano, with a beautiful double. This time he has to play the hare, but it doesn’t seem to worry him particularly: “I’m more relaxed than last year, thinking about being the leader or behind is useless. I focus on improving myself every time I go out on the track. That’s the most important thing”.

After a weekend like the one in Aragon, where it was very complicated to find the right key to make the bike work, given the almost total lack of grip, arriving on a track like Misano is certainly a great help: “We’ve ridden a lot here, we have very precise data. Then there’s also a lot of grip”.

After his triumph in Aragon, Marquez seems to be in top form here too with his Gresini Racing GP23, but that doesn’t seem to surprise “Martinator”, who perhaps expects it almost like a referee in the fight between him and Pecco: “Marc has been fast for a long time now. I think he’ll be every Friday now”.