Jorge Martin can breathe a sigh of relief, because he was really good at making up for the mistake he made yesterday in qualifying. From 11th place on the grid, he seriously risked being able to allow his rival Pecco Bagnaia to eat up a good part of the 21 point margin with which he had entered Japan. After a very good Sprint, finishing in fourth place, in the long race at Motegi he did even better, managing to climb up to second position, just behind the reigning world champion, who therefore got closer, but still remains at 10th. lengths.
“I’m happy, we had a fabulous race, being so close to Pecco pushed me to try, but with two laps to go I had a scare and decided it was time to relax and think about the points. Congratulations to Pecco, who he’s a master in this type of situation, but I’m happy, we had a good race”, said “Martinator” at the end of the day.
One of the keys to his recovery was his start, which immediately took him to sixth position. On the first lap, however, he also pulled off a nice double overtaking move against Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini, which was perhaps even more decisive.
“I made a good start, but not like yesterday’s. I had to take a lot of risks, even with Marquez, who I managed to overtake on the first lap, and Bastianini: I took a lot of weight off my shoulders in that overtaking. With Binder instead I suffered a little more and used a lot of tyres.”
“We saved a complicated situation by starting from 11th place on the grid, I wasn’t so sure I could finish second today. I used a lot of tires to try to catch Pecco and in the end I didn’t have enough to try to attack him in the final laps. I tried until the end, I’m happy to have recovered so many positions and this gives me confidence for the future.”
Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
When he was then asked if there had been a moment in which he had really thought he could also catch Bagnaia, he continued: “It was a strange race, I arrived second very quickly and I was trying to close the gap to Bagnaia, but when I was half a second behind and I had problems with the front tire. I took some time to cool it down, but with 10 laps to go I saw that I had something to save and I tried to attack, but every time I got closer. Again I was having problems and was starting to risk a fall, so I preferred to finish the race and secure the points.”
Given how the weekend went, having only lost 5 points in today’s race is almost worth a victory: “I don’t know what to say, this weekend I had a big challenge ahead of me starting 11th, I could have thrown the weekend away by starting like a madman, or I could try to get a good start and build a good race. I tried and I don’t leave with a bad taste in my mouth. What hurts me is the accident in Q2, because I could have fought more with Pecco: these are lessons and I hope to be better in the next race in Australia.”
Before getting on the podium, we saw him reply to Bagnaia that he would sign to get to Valencia on equal points. Which, however, he immediately took back when he got to the usual interviews: “No, obviously I’m not signing (laughs), but I had to tell him. It’s only 10 points, but Australia is a track that I like. We’ll rest for a week, but in the end I’m still in the lead and we have to stay there.”
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