Jorge Martín’s reaction to the abandonment in the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix was the best possible. This weekend, the Prima Pramac rider was constantly at the front throughout the French Grand Prix, achieving victory in the main race on Sunday after being the strongest in the Sprint race and qualifying.
After this strong performance, the Spaniard admitted that he did not expect to be at this level in Le Mans: ‘This is the fourth time I set the record lap, won the Sprint race and on Sunday. It’s certainly not easy, you need to be in great shape and I’m really happy with this. Riding here, we’ve been in the same position almost since Thursday and I didn’t expect to achieve these results, so I’m really happy with this‘.
Regarding his approach to the race, Martín commented: ‘I didn’t make the best start, but I think being behind Pecco was a good strategy because I was studying him, trying to let the laps go by, trying to maintain good tire pressure because with these cold conditions he might struggle a bit. So, I was confident behind him. And then, seven or eight laps from the end, I said: “Well, it’s time to make the move.” I tried the first time, couldn’t make it stick, went a bit wide, so he could counterattack. And after the second time, I did it perfectly, took the risk to brake a bit later. It was a bit on the edge, but I’m quite happy to have pulled it off‘.
The final stage of the race was physically demanding for the championship leader, as he mentioned: ‘The last five laps were so long. I tried to attack, I was a bit tired because it’s a very long race and with this wind changing from yesterday, so it was difficult. But I was able to make this small gap so they couldn’t attack back‘.
When he was still in second place, Martín was targeted by Márquez, and he talked about that phase of the race: ‘It’s true that I knew Marc was behind. I saw that [Fabio] DiGia was fading, so I said: “I’m right here behind Pecco”. Then I saw that even Marc was two seconds behind, but as soon as we started fighting a bit, he took almost a second in one lap. So, I said: “Well, I need to make the move and try to attack, otherwise Marc will catch up and maybe I’ll end up in third, not even in second”. So, I knew he was coming, that’s why I tried to overtake [Bagnaia] as quickly as possible to try to set my pace and try to build this small gap‘.
