MotoGP | Martin: “If a bad day means a podium, I'll sign”

The Prima Pramac Racing rider started from the front row but did not start strongly and lost positions until he dropped to sixth place, from where he had to roll up his sleeves to climb up to second, very close to Maverick Vinales, with whom it seemed being able to play for the victory, also taking advantage of an error that caused Pecco Bagnaia to lose positions.

However, the Spaniard arrived at the end with his tires at their limit and with the pressure of the front tire quite high, so he could neither attack Maverick nor defend himself from a spectacular Marc Marquez, who overtook him on the last lap.

“It was very difficult, the start was terrible, then I tried to be competitive, but I had problems on the back of the bike and on the front the tire had overheated. Let's hope we can give more tomorrow”, summarized Jorge Martin.

The key to the result was the start, when he failed to be effective. “I lost several positions and found myself in the middle of the group. If I had been first it would have been very different, but I was far behind and, little by little, I tried to catch up.”

As already happened on the last day of testing in Qatar and in the Lusail Sprint, the new “Martinator” Desmosedici GP24 had vibration problems.

“I had a lot of problems again with vibrations at the rear: I hope we will find a solution, because if that's the case we will suffer in every Sprint. I think that without them I could have attacked Maverick, I was stronger than him, but the pressure of my tires it was too high and I couldn't defend myself. I had to survive because I couldn't brake hard and Marc passed me,” he said.

“But if a bad day means a podium, I'll put my name to it. I hope to improve tomorrow, to find something that gives me more speed and above all to be able to overtake, which was the key,” he added.

On the last lap, Marquez attacked Martin with a spectacular maneuver inside turn 5.

“I didn't expect him to overtake me at that moment, but I was already at the limit and I had to brake very early because I was suffering with the front tire. When I saw him I picked up the bike, then I tried to stay close in case he had I made a mistake, but I was very close to the limit. In the end, however, I gained some points and that's okay,” he declared.

As for the vibration problem, Martin hopes not to have to deal with it again tomorrow.

“The fact that we pulled so hard at the start of the race is the cause of the vibrations with the soft tyre. With the medium tire we had no problems all weekend, so I hope that tomorrow, with that tyre, we can go better in the race and not suffer so much,” he concluded.