Jorge Martín defends his lead in the MotoGP World Championship this weekend at the San Marino GP. The Prima Pramac rider has a 23-point lead over Francesco Bagnaia and arrives at a circuit where he won both races in 2023.
The Spaniard downplayed the importance of last year’s performance in the present moment, emphasizing that the level is getting higher and higher: ‘For sure it’s nice to be here in Misano after last season’s result. But what I did last season, now it doesn’t matter anymore. Now the important thing is keep improving, keep learning. Now the level is raising a lot during the last races. I feel I’m progressing, and getting better and better, but also the others, so it’s quite difficult’.
While Martín faces Italian rivals in great form, he remains ambitious: ‘I feel also here in Italy for Pecco and Enea [Bastianini] will be a super good weekend, they train a lot here so for sure it’s a nice track for them. But also for us. We will try to repeat what I did last season, it will be super super hard, but I will give my best’.
When asked what allowed him to do such a strong performance in Misano in 2023, the #89 commented: ‘Well, last season I felt really, really good straightaway fron the first practice. For sure also Pecco and Marco [Bezzecchi] were injured, so I don’t know exacly how much that was disturbing them. But for sure they weren’t at 100%, so this was an advantage. And I was strong. I was missing a bit of speed in the back straight fast corner, so hopefully I can be a bit better this season’.
In July, Martín had the opportunity to ride a Ducati Panigale V4 S street bike in Misano during World Ducati Week… and revealed an episode from that event: ‘We came here, it was okay. It was nice to ride a bit here in Misano. I asked Franky [Morbidelli] before the race: «But do you brake at turn 11?». Because actually I was braking. And he told me: «No, no, I’m flat out». So for sure I was losing maybe 0.6s in one corner. But these guys [the Italians] after training, they are super fast. But luckly with the MotoGP we have to brake. So maybe I have an advantage’.