Martin: “There are riders who overtake better and some struggle a bit more”

A MotoGP race winner for the first time since Austria in 2021, Martin beat reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia to victory, after already winning his second sprint of the season on Saturday.

The Pramac rider, who didn’t have things all his own way unlike the sprint, was able to respond when Bagnaia passed him at turn 11 with nine laps to go, as he made the same overtake as on lap three.

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After five podiums in a row, which includes his Le Mans sprint win, Martin called it an emotional victory.

"It was so emotional today to win. I struggled quite a lot last season to be competitive and it was really frustrating. 

"But we’ve come back this season and I’ve been strong almost everywhere. Being on the podium so many times and missing that victory but today it came. 

"Today was a tough race. Pecco improved a lot. He did an amazing step from yesterday to today - I saw it already in the warm-up. 

"I was looking at the data and saw it was the same rider, so he improved a lot. I tried to do the same as yesterday and make this small gap. 

"But I was going too much into the rear tyre so I said it’s better that he catches me and let’s see what happens at the end. 

"When he overtook me, I changed the strategy a little because I thought he was going to be with a little bit more tyre. I wanted to fight back straight away. He was pushing a lot and it wasn’t easy to keep the concentration."

Martin and Bagnaia, along with another Ducati rider in Johann Zarco, proved that overtaking at Sachsenring was possible which was something others struggled to do.

And while not everyone agreed that Sachsenring was a good circuit for overtaking, Martin and Bagnaia felt as though it wasn’t an issue. 

Martin said: "It’s not easy but in the first lap I went from sixth to second, also I did that yesterday. 

"I feel like it was difficult to overtake and for sure it is not a track that is easy [to overtake], but I think there are riders that can overtake better and some that struggle a bit more.” 

"It’s not the first time that we’ve heard something like that,” added Bagnaia. “I remember in Jerez we did a race of just overtaking. 

"Today we demonstrated that if you’re able to overtake and you have the speed, then you can do it."