MotoGP | Martin called by the commissioners: now he fears a penalty

The King of Sprints has fallen. In the true sense of the word. For the first time since this format was introduced, Jorge Martin crashed on Saturday, hitting the first zero in a short race, in which he has always been considered a specialist. The Pramac rider still holds the top of the championship, but has seen his advantage over Pecco Bagnaia (winner without rivals) reduced to 27 points.

“It was a very strange fall,” explains Martin to the media at the end of a Sprint that ended up in the gravel of San Donato. “On the previous lap I had already gone wide at that point, so on the next lap I went in a little slower, but I crashed. It’s very difficult to control these situations, I didn’t do anything strange. When things don’t come out, it’s delicate and it’s easy to fall. I think the podium was under control, these things happen.”

Unexpected fall for Martin, but not too much. In fact, the Spaniard is not having his best weekend of the season and the lack of confidence with the front is already affecting him since Friday: “One day it’s one’s turn, one day it’s another’s turn. It’s the first zero in a Sprint, sooner or later it had to happen. I’d rather it happened on a bad feeling day than a good one. It’s been a difficult weekend so far, I’ve never felt comfortable with the front. Tomorrow we have to make a change, I think there is something big to improve that we still don’t know what it is, because after two times it seemed as if the tire was super used and it’s not normal to have this feeling.”

The unknown problem is crucial for Martin, who also complained of bad sensations during this morning’s qualifying, even though he signed the pole position: “The poles are always difficult, I had a good trail with Pedro Acosta and Marc Marquez, but in second attempt I already felt that the front wasn’t good. It already happened to me yesterday afternoon… After two laps I’m suffering a lot on the front. There’s something we’re not managing to find, let’s see what the other Ducatis do to be so competitive.”

In the Sprint, the Madrilenian was a great protagonist, not necessarily in a positive way. In addition to the crash, his short stint was characterized by great duels: the first with Marc Marquez for second position, the second with Enea Bastianini, with the latter ending up in the gravel after a contact. On the battle with his compatriot. Martin explains: “I saw him coming very close. On his first attempt he went to the outside and just had to maintain his position. At second, he went to the inside and I didn’t want to fight because he was coming pretty fast and I wanted to stay behind him.”

He then goes on to clarify his point of view on the accident with Enea Bastianini, which caused the official Ducati rider to fall. The strange thing is that the Race Direction had put the episode under investigation and archived it shortly afterwards as a “race accident”. Martin, however, reveals that he was summoned by the stewards and now fears that the outcome could change: “The truth is that I didn’t see him, on the first lap he resisted me on the outside in a corner which is dangerous, I gave in and it was gone wide. At Turn 1, I took my normal line, I only noticed a contact from the side, but in my position I couldn’t see it, I didn’t even know he had fallen, I saw it later on the screens. The stewards called me to Race Direction to speak despite the fact that during the race they decided not to take action because they considered the episode to be a race accident. I hope they don’t penalize me tomorrow.”