Jorge Martín was once again among the fastest riders at the start of the MotoGP Emilia-Romagna GP. This Friday, the championship leader finished second in Practice at Misano, 0.198s behind Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) who set a new lap record.
The Spaniard from Prima Pramac said tothe press: ‘The feeling was super good. I improved my lap time from two weeks ago, so this is already really important. I was really focused on the test to improve the time attack and I did it. This was my main goal. I think the grip was a bit less than two weeks ago, we were faster, so for sure tomorrow will be a really fast day’.
Asked what he lacked in time attack before the test, Martín explained: ‘I felt my rear tyre was pushing the front too much, it seems here with this level of grip I struggled to use 100% of my potential in time attack. But we solved it in a quite good way. I think we worked really well today. Even if I crashed at the end, I did two really good lap times, and also the pace is fantastic. I did 1m30.8s with the medium [tyre], so I need to be happy’.
As for the crash, the #89 commented: ‘Actually I just crashed, because I did exactly the same as the lap before, I was with the same speed and with the same brake. So I guess being following [Franco] Morbidelli was the problem. We are really on the limit, and this change of aerodynamics, downforce or whatever changes a lot the balance of the bike’.
Although the tarmac was wet in the first free practice session, Martín said that the grip didn’t change between the two sessions of the day: ‘In the morning there were a lot of damp patches, and in the afternoon the track was dry and we were super fast. But the grip in the morning was more or less the same’.