MotoGP | Martin: “If there were any doubts from Sachsenring, I’ve dispelled them”

The final act before the summer break was extremely painful for Jorge Martin, who at the Sachsenring saw a victory slip away on the penultimate lap, handing it to his rival Pecco Bagnaia, who thus snatched the world championship lead from him by 10 points.

The Prima Pramac Racing rider, therefore, needed to restart with a strong reaction at Silverstone and he did so, because he was the star of the day on Friday at the MotoGP British Grand Prix, where he was the fastest in both sessions, giving the impression of being in a pretty good position also in terms of race pace.

“It gives me a lot of confidence to come back like this: if there were any doubts from Sachsenring, I’ve dispelled them. To be honest, it was difficult for me to come back. I was very happy on holiday, as it should be, and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but it was clear that sooner or later I had to come back. And this was the best way. And here at Silverstone, on a track that I like, I managed to go very fast,” Martin said at the end of the day.

“I’m riding very well, I’m comfortable, and I haven’t had to touch the bike too much. I managed to keep the same set-up all day and that helps you gain confidence and go faster and faster. I had a lot of tests in mind, but in the end I decided not to change too much. There are some new parts that we have to test and I preferred to leave them aside. I want to work with my bike. It was a quiet day, but there were some new things,” he added.

When asked to go into a bit more detail about these new features, he continued: “There is a part to test, because we think that this is the cause of the crashes. I was the only Ducati rider who had it. I had it last year and this year, so maybe that was the cause of my crashes. So we went back a bit to the standard one. I had some doubts about whether I could go fast, but in the end I felt even better. Obviously it has some negative points, but I felt very good. That’s what I showed.”

Today “Martinator” also had to be careful not to give his rivals a slipstream, especially to a struggling Marc Marquez who tried to get past him more than once: “It’s not something I’m not used to, having a rider behind me. In the end I pushed anyway. Obviously you prefer to go alone, but you can’t control whether someone is following you or not. I still took the lead at that moment, and that gives me more confidence. It’s clear that if he’s a fast rider, it’s better not to give him the hook. In some cases he can even knock you out of Q2. But that’s how it is, I can’t do anything about it.”

Finally, he anticipated that there will be at least a couple of technicians from his current garage who will follow him in his new adventure in Aprilia next year: “‘Malaguita’ (David Galacho) was the first person I thought of, because he is the person I trusted the most at Pramac. He was the mechanic I was with the most years, I have never been with anyone else for more than two years, while I have been with him for four. And I think he will help me a lot in adapting to the new team. And Daniele Romagnoli the same, I have been here for four years, we fought for a World Championship, and I think I needed someone who knew me or who knew the bike. I didn’t want to experiment too much, and I think Romagnoli can help me adapt very quickly”.