Martin: “The podium was good after the crashes. But the vibrations…”

No victory, but always a leader

For the second consecutive Sprint, after the one in Portimao, Jorge Martin doesn't win. In some ways this is news, given that the career vice-world champion has already achieved ten successes in the short races on Saturday. However, his third place finish, behind Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez, is equally worth a lot. The Pramac centaur continues his journey streak of always podium placings at this start of the season, both on Saturday and in the actual GP on Sunday. Then this in Austin third place he arrived after a sixth position in qualifying, also the result of a double fall.

“After I crashed twice and even with a soft front tire that I don't like, I managed to finish on the second row in qualifying, which isn't that bad – explained the Ducati rider to the microphones of Sky Sports MotoGP – However, in the race it was difficult: I started well but they immediately got into me [avversari] into turn 1 and I ended up a little behind. However, I kept calm and managed to recover and then finish on the podium. I expected to finish a little later – Martin confessed – but the pace was strong“.

The tyres, usual problem

Already in these ten laps of the Sprint it was understood that tomorrow the watchword will be, once again, rubber management: “We arrived at the end of the Sprint still with vibrations – the vice-world champion 'denounced' – Pecco and Marc tried the medium tire, while I tried the soft more. We have good information to choose tomorrow: both options are good, but they must be managed“.

“If we start like today, it won't be nice to ride with this feeling – warned Martinator – already on the 2nd lap the vibrations returned and the problem was that they were increasing. I figured out how to drive with this problem. I'm optimistic for tomorrow, because in Portimao I had problems in the Sprint and not on Sunday, as in Qatar. If we can leave more calmly tomorrow we can manage it, but we have to find a solution: having a season like this means missing opportunities to do better. Tomorrow I'll do my best. Both Marc and I were catching up on Maverick. However, it will be complicated to manage the tire for a very long race”.