Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia engage in a titanic duel for the world title in MotoGPand after the near global equality in Indonesia, the Japanese Grand Prix turned to the advantage of the Italian.
Poorly qualified, the Spaniard however limited the damage, conceding only 11 points to the reigning world champion, and maintaining a 10 lead in the general classification.
With four rounds remaining and with 148 points still to go, no more errors are allowed, on either side, and Jorge Martin even comes to consider a final in Valencia with equal points…
As usualwe report here his words during his debriefing, without the slightest formatting, even if it is translated from English.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the post-race press conference of the Japanese Grand Prix at the Mobility Resort Motegi, round 16 completed, and it’s a double victory in the Sprint and the Grand Prix for Ducati rider Lenovo Pecco Bagnaia, of course the reigning world champion. Second from the 4th row of the grid was Jorge Martin for Prima Pramac Racing, and completing the podium was a second podium of the weekend for Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez. Gentlemen, congratulations to all three!
Now let’s move on to second place, that of Jorge Martin. Jorge, it is never easy to get on the podium in MotoGP on the first row of the grid, so starting from the 4th row is always a difficult race. It’s a fantastic race for you, a second place in this Grand Prix, you pushed very hard to put pressure on Pecco, but as you started 11th you must be very happy…
Jorge Martin : “Yes, I’m definitely happy. I might be a little happier if I was in front of Pecco, but today the goal was to be on the podium and we achieved that. I had a good start, but not as good as yesterday, so I had to recover a lot of positions to pass Marc, Enea and Brad. It was difficult, they are super strong when braking, so I had to take more risks than yesterday, but then the pace was good, I was a little faster than yesterday. And yes, the main problem was when I closed the gap to Pecco and was less than half a second away: I started having problems with the front, as we all know , so it was quite difficult. But even then, I never gave up, I tried, I tried, and yes, there were three or four laps to go when I was very close, but I got really hot in the corner 3 and I said “Okay, it’s time to stop.”. I did a good job, so I have to be happy with second place. »
You did this 1’45.0 on the 21st lap and the gap narrowed: did you think at one point, Jorge, that you had the pace to close it and maybe attack?
” Yes of course. As soon as I started to close the gap I saw that Pecco was a little wide in turn 11 twice, so I said “OK, it also grows at 100%”. We weren’t very close, so I never had the chance to do anything, but I saw that I put a little pressure on him by trying to force him, but he was super strong and very clever. »
Quickly guys, before we move on to questions from the media, we saw our first world champion crowned today, Moto3 star David Alonso. I know we’re all big fans of his here. I know all three of you are. And you Jorge? You must be very impressed with what Alonso has done this year…
“Yes, for sure. Congratulations to him and his team. I know the team from my time at Aspar, so I’m very happy for them.
Yesterday I found him in the elevator going to his room to sleep and he was still asking me how to do it, even though he sure didn’t need advice. But yes, he already knew his strategy. He is very intelligent and I think he is very mature for his age. So I think in less than three years he will be fighting with us in MotoGP. »
It seems that the brakes are at the limit on this circuit. Do you think anything needs to be done to reduce speed or aerodynamics, or to be more efficient with the brakes?
“For my part, I didn’t have any braking problems, so maybe I have to brake a little later (smile) because everything was fine. I think we brake even later than other seasons, and I haven’t had any problems, so it’s not the main problem for me. »
MotoGP 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Results at Motegi:
Ranking credit: MotoGP.com
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