Метка: Jorge Martin

Martin «doesn’t have anything to demonstrate» to Ducati after French GP win

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Martin emerged on top in an epic battle with fellow Ducati riders Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez to win the French Grand Prix, extending his lead in the championship to 38 points after five rounds.

The win on Sunday completed a perfect weekend for the Spaniard, who topped practice on Friday, claimed pole position in qualifying and grabbed maximum points from the sprint race on Saturday.

The result couldn’t have come at a better time for the Pramac rider, with Ducati currently evaluating whether to promote him to the factory team next year in place of incumbent Enea Bastianini or sign six-time champion Marquez instead.

But Martin thinks his current performances will have no bearing on where he rides next year, as he feels his past results are already enough to justify a place along Bagnaia next year.

“I don’t think I have anything to demonstrate,” he said following his success at Le Mans.

“About my future, I can say that the things that will happen in the next races won’t change. Even if I win, even if I crash, I already did what I had to do and I am really happy about my performance.

Pressed further if his win on Sunday sent a big message to Ducati, he said: “For sure, it’s important I think, maybe it’s clearer. But I think it won’t change.

Photo by: Marc Fleury

“I am the same rider as yesterday, same rider as Thursday. If they have to take a decision they already have [enough to] choose, and whatever it is it will be good.

“I really want to go to the Ducati factory team but if they don’t want me for whatever reason that we don’t know, then I will give my talent to other people.”

Martin celebrated his triumph over Marquez and Bagnaia by smashing the visor on his GP24, with the broken glass falling on track as he approached the opening turn on the cool-down lap.

The 26-year-old admitted that he did have some doubts about his abilities going into the race, but was elated to showcase himself that he is currently the best rider in the field.

“All the riders have some doubts before starting a race,” he said. “I know I’m strong but sometimes I have too many doubts. Maybe I don’t know how good I am.

«When I crossed the finish line I was like, ‘who is the number 1? who is the number 1?’.”

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Martin beats Marquez and Bagnaia in nail-biter

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



Having dominated the sprint race on Saturday, Martin converted pole to a second grand prix victory of the 2024 season to open up a lead of 38 points in the championship.

Shadowing the factory Ducati of Bagnaia for much of the 27-lap contest, Martin made his decisive move on the 21st tour to take the lead.

Resisting immense pressure from Bagnaia over the final few laps, Martin’s victory was assured on the final tour when Marquez – who started 13th – moved into second at Turn 9.

Martin took the chequered flag 0.446 seconds clear of Marquez, with Bagnaia third, while Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini recovered from a long lap penalty to fourth ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.

Following his bike woes that ruled him out of the sprint on Saturday, Bagnaia nailed the launch of the line to grab the holeshot from Martin and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Marquez made another solid start from 13th on the grid to get up to eighth after the opening corners.

Bagnaia and Martin quickly put a few tenths between themselves and the battle for third, which was headed by Espargaro before VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio passed him at Turn 8 on lap 10.

Espargaro quickly found himself swamped by team-mate Vinales and then Marquez, with the latter two swapping places on lap 14.

Marquez moved his Gresini Ducati ahead of Di Giannantonio at the Dunlop chicane at the start of lap 17, with the latter running through the chicane trying to defend third and earning himself a long lap penalty.

Bagnaia and Martin held a two-second gap over Marquez, whose pace was better at this phase of the race then theirs.

That gap shrunk to 1.3s at the start of lap 20 when Martin made his first attempt on Bagnaia’s lead at the Dunlop chicane, but couldn’t make the move stick.

When Martin finally found his way through on the reigning world champion on the following lap – again at Dunlop – Marquez was just 0.8s behind.

Marquez quickly got onto the rear of the lead battle and the trio broke away from Vinales behind, who would come under pressure from Bastianini late on.

Martin gave Bagnaia a sniff at retaking the lead at Dunlop on lap 25 when he ran deep, but the Pramac rider held firm.

He led onto the final lap and kept the door shut to Bagnaia, whose chances were ended when Marquez scythed past on the brakes into Turn 9.

This blew Martin’s lead up to 0.446s while Marquez ensured Bagnaia had no way to strike back as they took the chequered flag.

Bastianini was handed a long lap penalty for cutting the Turn 9/10 chicane when passing Espargaro for sixth on the 12th tour.

Quickly serving the penalty, Bastianini fought back to fourth ahead of Vinales and Di Giannantonio after the VR46 rider’s violation.

Franco Morbidelli was seventh on the second Pramac Ducati, marking his best grand prix result in 2024.

Brad Binder was eighth having started last on the factory KTM, with Espargaro and Gresini’s Alex Marquez rounding out the top 10.

The final points went to Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez, LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez, Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Yamaha’s Alex Rins.

Luca Marini was the final classified runner in 16th on his factory Honda, with team-mate Joan Mir crashing out.

Home hero Fabio Quartararo was running inside the top eight when he fell off his Yamaha at Turn 9 on lap 17.

VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi registered his second race crash of the weekend when he slid out of seventh at Turn 6 on lap four, while Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta went down on the previous tour.

KTM’s Jack Miller and Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira also failed to make the finish.

MotoGP French GP — Race results:



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Martin’s 2024 MotoGP form giving him “some power” in contract talks

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Qualifying on pole with a new Le Mans lap record, Martin converted that to a dominant third sprint win of the 2024 season.

With Francesco Bagnaia retiring with bike issues and his factory Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini only fourth, Martin is now 28 points clear in the championship.

This all comes as Martin’s 2025 future remains uncertain, with Ducati’s decision between him, Marc Marquez and Bastianini set for the Italian GP at the end of the month.

Earlier this week, Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna told motogp.com that the marque has to “consider all of their history, not just 2024”.

Asked if he considers himself the leading Ducati rider right now, Martin responded: “Well, I don’t know. I am the leader [of the championship] so I guess till now I was the strongest.”

He added: “I think at the end of the season [is when I’ll start to think about the championship].

“For sure it’s important to be in the lead, but I think it will be interesting when we have the chance to win the championship.

“Till that moment, there is no sense to look at it. It’s nice. Since Portimao it was [that I’ve been leading], so more than one month being in the lead.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“This means we are the strongest, this means also some power for contracts. I’m happy to be in the lead.”

While feeling confident going into Sunday’s grand prix, Martin admits Pramac has to find something to improve front edge grip after it proved worse in the sprint than expected.  

“So far, a perfect weekend,” he said.

“I am super happy. I think we did an amazing performance to the sprint. Tomorrow will be interesting to understand where we are on Sundays, but you also score points on Saturday, so it’s super important to be fast.

“I am confident, I think we have some good information for tomorrow’s race because I didn’t feel as [good] as this morning on the front.

“I was losing a bit on the edge grip, it was much less than this morning.”

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MotoGP points leader Martin has no answer for «strange» Spanish GP crash

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Pramac rider Martin had seized the early advantage at the Jerez circuit on Sunday, having passed both polesitter Marc Marquez and factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia in the opening two laps of the grand prix.

Circulating almost a second clear of the chasing pack led by his 2023 title rival Bagnaia on the 11th lap, Martin suddenly lost the front of his Ducati GP24 under braking for Turn 6 and hit the ground, suffering his first retirement of 2024.

The DNF shrunk his championship lead to just 17 points, as Bagnaia capitalised on the mistake to clinch his first victory since the Qatar opener and move up to second in the championship.

Speaking afterwards with the media, Martin was perplexed by a crash that came without warning while he was managing his pace at the front of the field.

«For sure [it was] a strange crash,» he said. «I will look a little bit into it. I was exactly at the same speed and I braked at the same point [as previous laps].

«So it’s a bit strange, we need to understand a bit more on the details.

«I was trying to be constant on that pace, 1m37.9, 38.0. It was a decent pace to keep the lead at that point of the race, trying to save a bit the rear tyre for the end. I was focused and confident.

«For sure, I didn’t expect to crash in that pace because I was really early into the corner, I was really straight. We need to understand to not repeat it again.»

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

He added: «Maybe there was some corners where I was risking a bit more, but corner six wasn’t one of them. I was trying to be constant, I was braking always at the same point. So we need to understand where and improve for the future.»

Several riders were penalised for running lower tyre pressures in Saturday’s sprint, which was won by Martin.

But the Spanish rider doesn’t think tyre pressure had anything to do with his crash in the grand prix, as he and Pramac continue to chase answers for the «strange» incident.

«We went a bit higher than yesterday so I was already in on the second lap. I’ve been in front. I think it wasn’t a thing of the pressure. I still didn’t understand the crash.»

Martin’s exit elevated Bagnaia to the lead of the race, with the factory Ducati rider resisting immense pressure from Gresini’s Marquez in the final laps to take an epic win in his rival’s home ground.

Bagnaia set a best time of 1m37.449s en route to his third successive MotoGP win at Jerez, having also won at the Spanish track in 2022 and ’23.

Martin hinted that he wouldn’t have been able to match the pace of Bagnaia had he made it to finish in the 25-lap contest.

«I saw 0.2 on the pitboard and I saw he was struggling a little bit,» said the 26-year-old. «But I was trying to always keep the same pace. It’s not that I pushed a bit more.

«But today Pecco was, I saw afterwards at the track, he was outstanding. His pace was amazing. I didn’t feel like I had [1m]37.4, maybe 37.6, 37.7. I could do it, but not 37.4, that’s for sure.»

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Martin “has margin” to better COTA MotoGP record-smashing practice lap

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Pramac Ducati rider Martin demolished Francesco Bagnaia’s pole record at the Circuit of the Americas of 2m01.892s from last year with a 2m01.397s in Friday’s second practice.

Though challenged late on by Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, Martin held on to end Friday fastest of all as he looks to strengthen his 18-point lead in the standings in Saturday’s sprint.

The Spaniard felt he still had more time on the table owing to two errors he made on that record-beating lap, but admits it will be “really challenging” to maintain his advantage into Saturday.

“I did two small mistakes, so I think I have some margin for tomorrow – not a lot,” he said.

“And also if the track keeps improving, because I think it improved quite a lot from FP1 to FP2, so it will improve for tomorrow and we will be a bit faster.

“But I’m happy. In terms of pace, I feel confident.

“I think even if tomorrow a lot of riders will improve, it will be really challenging to be one of the strongest, I feel prepared and ready for everything.”

Reigning world champion Bagnaia lifted himself into the Q2 places with the fourth-best time on Friday, which he described as his best of the season.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia noted that the immense grip levels in Qatar masked the issues on braking he struggled with in Portugal, but has rediscovered that form on Friday in Austin.

“Feeling good, best Friday so far from a long time, also last year,” he said.

“This morning we started more or less with the same set-up as Portimao.

“I was quite competitive but not as much, then this afternoon we decided to go back to a set-up that was similar more or less to last year [at COTA] and I started to feel much better.

“The thing is that in Qatar we started a bit improving the setting, but the grip was very high so it was difficult to understand some things.

“In Portimao we started to struggle, also when I was releasing brakes the feeling was not the best. Here it started to become more or less the same [as in Qatar], so I’m very happy.

“We just went with a different strategy to the others with the medium and the pace was very good. So, I’m happy.”

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Martin admits he is unlikely to stay with Pramac MotoGP team beyond 2024

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The 26-year-old made his MotoGP debut with Pramac in 2021 and has been a part of its roster ever since, enjoying the privilege of factory machinery.

Had he won the 2023 MotoGP title, he would have gained automatic promotion to the Ducati factory team for this season in place of Enea Bastianini.

With his future at Pramac already in doubt beyond this year, as the 2023 championship runner-up eyes a factory team switch, Martin made his clearest comment yet on the matter on Thursday at the Americas Grand Prix.

Asked about a potential tie-up between Yamaha and Pramac for 2025, Martin said: “Well, it’s the first I’ve heard of this.

“Well, at the moment I am more attached to Ducati than with Pramac. And it’s been like this for my MotoGP career.

“My priority, everybody knows what that is. Let’s wait, it’s still early.

“But I don’t know. I hope to move to a factory team. So, even if Pramac changed [manufacturer] I think I won’t stay here.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This comment comes a month on from Pramac team boss Gino Borsoi telling Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview that he felt Martin’s time with the squad “like it or not has come to a bit of an end”.

Ducati’s management has also noted on numerous occasions that it feels Martin deserves a factory seat with the Italian brand.

With reigning double world champion Francesco Bagnaia renewed for two more years ahead of the 2024 campaign, the final factory team seat looks set to be hotly contested, with Martin a key figure in this race.

Following Ducati signing a two-year deal with Moto2 star Fermin Aldeguer – who is expected to race for Borsoi’s team – in March Motorsport.com reported that Pramac does have escape clause in its contract with the Italian brand.

It is understood Pramac has been in touch with Yamaha and KTM, and could leave Ducati if it receives a suitable offer.

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Why “mature” Martin will start to cause headaches in 2024 MotoGP title race

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The Spaniard holds a lead of 18 points in the championship after the opening two rounds of the season, marking the first time he has ever headed the standings for more than 24 hours.

Prior to Portugal, he led the championship on two occasions: once after the sprint race in Indonesia last year, before crashing while dominantly leading in the grand prix, and again after the Qatar GP sprint in 2024 before Francesco Bagnaia won on Sunday.

He branded his Portugal GP win as “really mature”, with that maturity borne out in the way he managed the race and being a key lesson he had learned from last year in action.

He reflected on his Indonesia defeat in 2023 when altering his approach to the Portuguese GP three weeks ago, two races that in many ways were identical.

In both, Martin was utterly dominant as the leader, controlling the pace and keeping enough in hand to stave off any assault the riders behind may have threatened.

In Indonesia, this gained him a lead of over three seconds before he crashed out in the latter stages – handing a crucial 25 points to title rival Bagnaia at the time.

There was no repeat of this in Portugal at the end of March this year, with Martin managing things better to inflict maximum damage on reigning champion Bagnaia after his controversial tangle with Marc Marquez.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“For sure, when they were three, two tenths [behind], it wasn’t easy,” he said when speaking about Portuguese GP rivals Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini.

“But when I got that gap to seven tenths, then I said ‘Ok, now it’s time to keep this gap [stable]’. I remember Indonesia, and I thought it’s the same winning with eight tenths as with three seconds.

“Today it was enough. If they caught me one tenth, I would push one tenth. I had that margin to push a little bit more. I’m super happy because I think it’s a super mature one.”

Already after two rounds of the 2024 season, Martin is on 60 points and is at a 30-point-per-weekend pace following a GP win and a third in the sprint, as well as a sprint win in Qatar and third in the GP.

After two rounds last year, Martin had only scored 22 points – though his incident with Marc Marquez in the Portuguese GP has a hand in this tally. Regardless, there was no bounce back in Argentina, where he was only eighth in the sprint and fifth in the GP having been second in the Portugal sprint.

The king of the sprint format in 2023, winning nine of them, Martin feels the GP24 is working better in the longer-distance races than in the short Saturday contests.

But if the damage limitation is podiums every time, the consistency that ultimately stopped him short of the title last year looks to be eradicated.

While all eyes will be on Marc Marquez in this weekend’s Americas Grand Prix, at a circuit he is typically guaranteed to win at, it is Martin who looks like the most dangerous threat coming into the third round of the year. 

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Portugal MotoGP win “amazing” at a track “where I almost lost everything”

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The 2023 championship runner-up put in a controlled performance last Sunday in Portugal to score his first grand prix win since last year’s Thailand GP.

With erstwhile championship leader Francesco Bagnaia crashing out in a controversial tangle with Marc Marquez, Martin now leads the standings by 18 points.

Martin says defending the lead he took from third on the grid at Turn 3 on the opening lap was “key” to a win that proved to be somewhat emotional for the Spaniard.

In his rookie year in 2021, he suffered a violent incident in practice at Turn 7 at the Algarve track in which he sustained multiple fractures that almost curtailed his career.

“I think this consistency is the most important thing and today the key thing was the start,” Martin told MotoGP’s After the Flag on Sunday.

“I was really committed to take the lead in the first corner and then I tried to close a lot on the third corner because I knew it was my key to win.

“I tried to manage a bit at the beginning, taking those two, three tenths to maintain the lead.

“And as soon as I started to push I saw nobody, they weren’t able to close that gap. As soon as they closed a little bit, I pulled again. So, it was a really mature Sunday, mature win.

“I’m really happy and proud of the team and the job we’re doing. The new Ducati is better on Sundays than Saturdays.

“To win here, at a track where I almost lost everything, I almost stopped racing and now I’m here in first place. 

“This is amazing and I’m so grateful to this track because I learned a lot.”

Marshals and Mediacal team at Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing after the crash

Marshals and Mediacal team at Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing after the crash

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

After the collision between Marquez and Bagnaia, which he saw on the big screens around the track, Martin says he knew he had to win the grand prix.

“About the incident, I saw it on the screen,” Martin said.

“And at that point I said ‘Jorge, you need to finish, 100%’. So, for two corners I was really blocked and then I said to myself ‘ok, today you need to win’. I didn’t care about finishing, just winning.”

Martin didn’t suffer from the rear chatter problems that plagued him in Qatar, but notes that the GP24 struggles more in sprints than it does in grands prix now.

“I think for us now, we need to understand why we suffer much more when we push from the beginning than when we can be smooth on the first laps,” Martin, who has the most sprint wins of anyone with 11, said when asked about rear chatter.

“So, in the beginning [of the grand prix] I was smooth even if we push in the first laps.

“I was really relaxed and as soon as I started pushing I had that thought in my mind that maybe the vibrations were arriving.

“But finally they didn’t. Now we need to check for Saturdays because the sprint now is our weak point. So, let’s be focused on that and try to fix that.”

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