Jorge Martín tried his best but failed to surpass Francesco Bagnaia in the Sprint race of the Dutch MotoGP Grand Prix. The Prima driver Pramac qualified in second position and finished the Sprint race at Assen in the same position, unable to challenge his dominant rival.
The Spanish rider explained that he had some difficulties with the front of his bike, but that he felt improvements throughout the day and that he thought he could be closer on Sunday:
– Well, I tried to do my best pace possible. I think I wasn’t 100%; I was losing the front a lot at Turn 6 and when you lose the front at 300 km/h it’s not very nice. So after that I was trying to be really gentle there, trying to have a margin not to crash. I think I was losing a lot of time there. Overall, on the rest of the track I felt confident, I feel like I improved a lot from morning to afternoon and I’m a lot closer to him. But he’s still doing it easier, 100%. I feel like if we make some changes to improve that at Turn 6 it will also help me on the rest of the track to try to turn better. So let’s try to be optimistic, try to improve and try to be closer tomorrow. I don’t know if I can beat him or win because he’s super strong, but I’ll try.
Regarding the problems he faced, Martín explained in more detail: “ Turns 6 and 12 are where I lose a lot. It’s not that I can’t go faster, it’s that I’m losing the front, that’s the main problem. We have progressed a lot since yesterday, the bike is much more stable. This morning, or even yesterday, I didn’t lose the front end there – maybe it was shaking a little bit or something, but today I lost the front end. So it’s super strange. I felt from the start of the race that my front was not working perfectly. Maybe it’s the tire, I don’t know – I hope that’s it. But at least we’re close, and even in qualifying we did an incredible lap, so I’m pretty happy with the day ».
Asked if this could be related to the phase where the tyres are newer, with the rear pushing the front, the #89 driver explained: “ Maybe that’s a problem too, but thinking about this morning, I was with the soft rear and a very worn front and I didn’t have the problem. That’s why I think maybe it was the front tire – because I didn’t have that problem yesterday or this morning, so I want to be optimistic on that side, thinking that maybe the tire was not 100%. But we also need to improve in other areas, so we will try to make some changes for tomorrow ».
