No one likes to lose, but Jorge Martin is probably right to try to look at the Assen Sprint as a glass half full. The World Championship leader seemed to be in obvious trouble yesterday, then today in qualifying he came close to beating Pecco Bagnaia, to whom he bowed by just 81 thousandths despite the monstrous lap of the reigning world champion.
In the race, however, his limits came out again, so the Prima Pramac Racing standard bearer could not help but admit the superiority of his rival, who distanced him by more than two seconds. However, he deserves credit for managing to limit the damage, allowing himself to recover just 3 points from his rival, who now follows him at -15.
“After the Friday we had I couldn’t expect to get on the podium today, we worked hard, but Pecco is still on another planet. I tried to follow him but with the hard front tyre I didn’t have a good feeling: in the end I managed to make it work, but not at the maximum. It was a very, very fast race, with a pace that I haven’t had all weekend, so I had to push myself a lot to keep that pace. I hope to get on the podium tomorrow, even if it will be very difficult”, said Martin.
He has no doubts about what his weak points were today: the poor feeling with the hard front tire, which also cost him a few thrills, but also Bagnaia’s superiority in tackling the T2 of the “Cathedral”. That’s probably the aspect he will have to try to work on with his guys tonight.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“I wanted to race with a different tire (the soft), but when I saw on the grid that the asphalt temperature was 51 degrees, I understood that it was impossible and I had to use the hard tire on the front. But I didn’t feel like it. nothing comfortable,” “Martinator” explained.
“I was losing the front a lot, I had a lot of scares, one at the beginning when I risked falling, and I have to improve a lot in T2: it’s incredible how Pecco passes in that area. We have improved, but we have to continue to progress if we want to have a chance in tomorrow’s race. It’s my weak point, the rest of the track works well for me, but I have to improve in those corners because I lose two tenths that I can’t recover”, he added.
His hope is that tomorrow the temperature will drop, allowing a different choice of tyres. Otherwise, we will have to be very realistic and concrete: “We will see what the tyre will be for the race tomorrow. Today with a lower temperature it would have been an ideal test to understand if the soft compound would have held up. If the temperature drops, we have the possibility to change, but at the moment everything indicates that we will have to race with the hard tyre and, above all, we must be aware of the weapons that my opponents will have”.
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