Jorge Martín did not stay at the top positions in Friday afternoon’s practice at the Italian MotoGP GP. The championship leader was only seventh, 0.467s off the top of the timesheet.
Although he acknowledges that he could have done more this Friday, the Prima Pramac Racing rider believes he has what it takes to fight for the top three in qualifying:
– I don’t think I put it all together: first because I had another rider in front of me disturbing me during my first stint. And then in the second stint maybe I didn’t feel perfectly with the front end on the second attempt of my time attack. In terms of pace, it seemed good; I tried both tires, the used soft and the medium, and I felt confident. So, I think I will be strong for tomorrow. I just need to put it all together in qualifying, but I think I am strong for the front row.
As for the tires, Martín admitted that the choice for Sunday’s race is still unclear: ‘For the Sprint it is obviously the soft and for Sunday it will be difficult. Last season, the tire for the win was the medium, so the potential is good. Today I tried it and felt better than last season. Maybe it’s an option for Sunday. Of course, with the soft you are stronger in the first laps and the grip is better, but then, we’ll see. We are capable of making the medium work to try to bring it until the end and let’s see if we can do a good job with it on Sunday‘.
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) led clearly this Friday, but the Spaniard does not believe that the rival is superior in race pace: ‘He had something extra in attacking the stopwatch, but not in terms of pace. I think either me or Marc [Márquez] are strong. I didn’t look at different riders, but I feel quite strong in pace, and let’s see if we can have that pace tomorrow’.
