Jorge Martín continues on his merry way. This season There are already only two left to have scored points in each race, long or sprint, and the reigning vice-world champion has built up a capital of 92 points which makes him a solid leader.
When Pecco Bagnaia, Marc Márquez and Maverick Viñales lost big by extending the list of falls on Saturday, Martín emerged victorious from a chaotic sprint race, a little surprised to be at such a party but not unhappy to take this further step towards his objective: to have a regular season, without losing at the start of the championship the points which will weigh heavily at the time of the final accounts.
On Saturday, he found the front row which had escaped him in Austin. When the lights went out, he grilled the pole sitter, then made short work of Brad Binder, the leader at the first corner, and took the lead. He was going to last until halfway. By getting hot, he then allowed Márquez to pounce on him and take the lead. But two laps later, the Gresini driver was on the ground and Martín had his chance to validate a victory which was now within his reach.
“As soon as he passed me, he opened the gap, but then I was able to close that gap. I was trying to catch him and I definitely would have tried until the end. That said, “The realistic position today was maybe second, I’m happy though, I had a great start, I pushed a lot at the start and maybe I wore my tire too much.” estimates Jorge Martín while analyzing his race for the official MotoGP website.
VIDEO – Festival of falls during the Jerez sprint!
Once back in the lead, the biggest difficulty was no longer to beat his opponents, but to stay on his wheels, while ten crashes followed in ten minutes, decimating the peloton and eliminating up to five drivers in its wake.
“I tried to follow Marc until he fell, then I tried to finish because Pedro [Acosta] was three or four seconds behind so, from that point on, reaching the finish line was enough to win,” explained the Spaniard, who didn’t really realize what was happening behind him.
“I wasn’t aware of these crashes at the time. I saw that the others were really far behind, so I took very few risks when I was in front. But it’s clear that in the turn 5, the wet area was very difficult to see and you could very easily end up on the ground. [Et aussi] in turns 8, 9, the last… It was very complicated to go to the end and I got there, so I’m very happy. I think I used my experience a lot to finish today and score as many points as possible.”
This gives a somewhat unexpected victory for the Spanish driver, but the weekend is not over. “I didn’t expect it this morning, with these wet conditions. It was a special day and I hope that tomorrow we can improve and also fight for victory,” he warned on Saturday evening, when a dry race was announced for today.
“It is certain that there are drivers who have pace, at least in the first laps. Afterwards, I have confidence in the fact that we are strong enough to fight for victory. We saw that Marc was perhaps a little more competitive with the soft tire, we’ll see tomorrow with the medium but I have the feeling that we can get a good result and I hope to be able to get on the podium.”
After three Grands Prix and this sprint, Jorge Martín is now followed in the championship by the other driver who has systematically scored points, namely the rookie Pedro Acosta, who yesterday achieved his best result in the Saturday exercise and now has 29 delay units.
