Jorge Martín reinforced his lead in the MotoGP World Championship with a third-place finish in the Sprint race. To reach the position he finished in, he overtook a strong Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM), but then didn’t have time to fight with the top two – Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) and the winner Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia).
The Prima Pramac Spaniard commented on his performance yesterday, acknowledging that it could have been better: ‘I think I was late in the overtakes, because I believe that maybe if I hadn’t lost two or three positions in the first corner with Enea [Bastianini] and Aleix [Espargaró], then I would have gone a bit further. But after overtaking them, I think everything got a bit hot at the front and I had trouble stopping the bike. Pedro was braking very late, so it was difficult to make a pass. As soon as I made the overtakes, I started to build a gap to the rider behind. So, I think for the main race if I can be a bit more focused on the start and the first corner, maybe I can be fighting with Maverick.’
Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, from the official Ducati team, complained about the lack of rear grip, but for Martín the main issue is the vibrations:
– I think it was a bit less [grip] than usual, but we also have a lot of vibrations. I had a lot of difficulties with vibrations from the second lap [in the Sprint race], so together with Ducati we need to understand how to improve because I think we are missing opportunities to achieve better results.
Despite the difficulties of yesterday, #89 ensured that he is optimistic for the race this Sunday: ‘I was really on the edge since the second or third lap. It was very difficult to enter the turns, here with the accelerator I had some vibrations. I am optimistic for the main race, because every Saturday we had this problem, Sunday was better’.
