Jorge Martin: “I’d prefer to feel bad and get P4, than feel good and crash…”
“I started bad and tried to recover in the first corners. This was a disaster."
Jorge Martin described the sprint in Barcelona as “a really bad day” despite maintaining a healthy lead in the championship.
Martin was restricted to fourth but, due to Pecco Bagnaia’s crash from the lead of the sprint on Saturday at the Catalunya MotoGP, his title lead was barely damaged.
It was reduced from 38 points from Bagnaia to 37 points to Marc Marquez.
“Difficult, really difficult,” Martin bemoaned. “It was a really bad day. The feeling was really bad.
“I started bad and tried to recover in the first corners. This was a disaster because I overheated the rear too much. It never recovered.
“After, I tried to make lap time with the front by entering fast and turning. It didn’t work.
“Even on a bad day, I got fourth position. Maybe it wasn’t a real position because there were crashes but maybe this is because they pushed too much.”
Martin explained why his start was so bad: “I couldn’t try this set-up and this clutch. It was straight into the race. It was unpredictable, then a bad start.
“Tomorrow I will try to understand in the warm-up.”
Martin witnessed Raul Fernandez, Brad Binder and Bagnaia all crash out from the lead.
Did it make him more careful, with the podium narrowly eluding him?
“I’d prefer to feel bad and to get fourth position, than feel good and crash,” he said.
“I saw the crashes and my feeling was really bad, in that moment, so maybe I wasn’t the only one.
“I was losing the front in every corner.
“The pressure was okay. It was about temperature.
“Let’s try for a better start. I was 11th in the first corner.”
Despite emerging with his title lead still strong, Martin was disappointed.
“My target is to be on the podium. Today we did not achieve my goal,” the Pramac Ducati rider said.
“We have potential for the podium and the victory.
“I struggle behind riders. When I am stuck behind someone, I struggle a lot.
“I don’t struggle at this track. Just in the sprint. I feel confident that, with the medium, I can do a better job.”
Aleix Espargaro won the sprint ahead of Marquez and Pedro Acosta.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
