MotoGP | Martin: “I don’t have much to prove anymore, Ducati knows my worth”

There are no more adjectives to describe what Jorge Martin manages to do on Saturdays in the Sprints, also because the numbers are already too explanatory. Since they were introduced at the beginning of 2023, 24 have been held and the Prima Pramac Racing rider has taken home 12 of them.

The last of the collection arrived at Le Mans, where “Martinator” became the protagonist of yet another monologue, leading from start to finish after starting very well from pole position. A significant success also from a World Championship perspective: thanks to the retirement of Pecco Bagnaia, his direct pursuer is now Enea Bastianini, who is 28 points away.

It is clear that it is still very early to make reasoning of this type, but it is certainly another important message sent to Ducati, which in the coming weeks will have to choose Bagnaia’s future teammate in a run-off between him, Bastianini and Marc Marquez . When he was asked by Sky Sport MotoGP if today he believes he has taken a step forward towards the Red, he was once again very clear: “I no longer have much to prove. Everyone is clear on my value, also in Ducati. We hope that everything goes as we want.”

Returning to the Sprint, the first thought was for the guys from Paolo Campinoti’s team, who rebuilt his Desmosedici GP24 after the qualifying accident, making sure that the difference was not noticeable in the slightest.

“Today I want to congratulate my team, because I started with the same bike as the crash, but everything was perfect and this is never easy. We had a bit of doubt about trying it in the out-lap and changing it to the second one if there was something that wasn’t right. I felt a little better on that bike so we decided to use it, but everything was really perfect, so I can only compliment the team,” said Martin.

The Madrilenian then explained that it wasn’t easy to control the pace at all, because in the first half Marco Bezzecchi forced him to continue pushing. After the fall of the Rimini native, however, it was just a question of strong nerves.

“Until Bezzecchi was at least within a second, I didn’t manage at all. At the beginning he was at seven tenths and, even though I was pushing hard, at a certain point he was even getting closer. I feared that by continuing like this, one of the two it would have been a disaster. Then when I got to have a 1.1 lead, then I started managing. Then when he crashed I was more calm, because I had almost two seconds on Marquez, so I just had to take it home. I said to myself: ‘Don’t worry, Jorge, don’t worry, you just have to finish the race’.”

Today they all chose the soft rear for the Sprint, but in theory this should be the primary option for tomorrow too, so Jorge was asked if he thinks we should keep a less frenetic pace to make it last until the end with double the number of laps to run.

“I think that if we were to push so hard, staying on the low 1’31” then there will be a big drop in the tyre, but if we manage to stay constant on the 1’31″5 it could even hold until the end. Even this morning with on a soft that had 23 laps I still did a low 1’31”, but there isn’t a big drop in the rear. We will also have to see the weather, because with the lower temperature it could also last longer. If it doesn’t rain, we can have a quick race,” he concluded.