Jorge Martín finished the second day of testing in Losail with the seventh fastest time and although he generally felt good, he revealed a problem that made him very uncomfortable, especially during and after his last outing on the track. He wants this problem resolved as soon as possible, as it could greatly limit his performance in the opening round of the championship.
The press on site questioned the rider, one of the favorites and most serious contenders for victory in the championship, about whether he had everything “sorted out” for the start of the season. He responded as follows: ‘Well, I don’t know. I felt quite confident until the last outing, very confident with the pace, doing 1m52s with a heavily used medium tire, 20 laps, and I think we improved almost a second from the race. Then, on the last outing, I tried to do a long run to simulate a Sprint race, but immediately felt a lot of vibration at the rear, and this is a problem I had throughout the test. Comparing with the other Ducatis, they don’t have it, so I hope we can find a solution and I hope it’s something on the bike that isn’t working well. We have two weeks to analyze it because if I have these vibrations during the race weekend, I will have a lot of difficulties to be ready for victory’.
Regarding the problem, the Spanish rider clarified: ‘It only happened to me… Well, it happened when we had 20 or 22 laps and we were already very close to the limit, and today, right from the second lap, I felt this problem. I don’t know if it’s something with the swingarm, the frame, or whatever. We will put everything new for the race weekend and I hope the problem disappears because, at the moment, I can’t accelerate as I want because of this vibration’.
The problem apparently didn’t happen with just one bike: ‘Yes, I had this problem with both bikes. I rode more with one because we didn’t have many fairings, and yesterday was more about the tire and today more about the bike, which is not working. I’m happy because I feel that when everything is fine, I’m very fast, but on the other hand, I feel somewhat disappointed with the situation and I hope I can be more relieved in FP1 in two weeks.’
