Today’s victory at Misano once again helped Jorge Martín slightly increase his lead over Pecc Bagnaia in the championship, but that’s not something that’s on the mind of the Pramac rider, who recalled the long race ahead of him this Sunday. Martín also left a word of congratulations for Franco Morbidelli and revealed that he can manage on his own and that all he needs from his team-mate is… for him not to throw him down if they battle on the track.
Speaking to the press, the Spaniard explained that he’s not thinking about his points lead over Bagnaia right now: ‘That doesn’t matter to me at the moment. The important thing is to give my 100 per cent. I got the win today. Tomorrow I’ll do my best and we’ll see if I can do it again. It’s going to be very difficult. Especially the start will be very difficult. Then I see myself with options, I think I have great pace and it’s going to be a very long race’.
And he rejected any pressure there might be: ‘In the end, I’m very happy because I won. It was several seconds in a row. If I’d been second, I’d have been just as happy, but it looked like I was catching up, but I attacked again and made up the gap, so I’m very happy and tomorrow will be much more difficult. I have to be prepared, I’m happy, but I’m just as focused on tomorrow. I’m going to try to prepare a lot for the first corners, because they’re going to be crucial for the course of the race’.
Martín was also happy for the resurgence of his teammate Franco Morbidelli, who was third, and for the team: ‘I think that after last year, we were world champions as a team and I was runner-up, and this year we’re still in the fight. That shows that the team isn’t lacking anything, it’s a great team, and I’m happy for Franky too, because after so long, I don’t know exactly how long, but he hasn’t been on the podium for a long time, so I’m happy for him’.
He did, however, leave a message for the #21, to whom he made a ‘request’, in a way:
– I don’t need any help. In the end, the only thing we need, especially from our teammate, the rest we can’t control, but from our teammate is that, in the event of a fight, he doesn’t throw us down. That’s all I’m asking from here. I hope it goes well, I hope he can fight for the win, but at least that we don’t have any contact.