Jorge Martin “struggled to keep the concentration” in lonely Aragon MotoGP

Jorge Martin arrived in Aragon trailing Francesco Bagnaia by five points in the MotoGP riders’ standings, but leaves for Misano leading by 23 points.

As well as a non-score for Bagnaia, that lead came thanks to Martin’s persisting consistency. In the six races (three Sprints, three Grands Prix) since the summer break, Martin has finished second in all of them, including the two in Aragon this weekend.

Martin was comfortably second-best to Marc Marquez in Aragon, but also comfortably better than everyone else, leaving him in quite a lonely position.

“First of all I want to congratulate Marc [Marquez],” Martin told the post-race press conference, “because for sure after a long period is always difficult, and he deserved the victory. He was super-fast this weekend and was unbeatable.

“From my side, I tried to close the gap every practice, try to be close to him, try to learn from him, because in the first practice I had maybe one second and slowly I was closing, but never enough.

“In the race, there was some points where I tried to push, to force maybe a mistake, but I was forcing too much, so at the end I had 10 seconds behind and I was just trying to finish the race, it was difficult.

“I struggled to keep the concentration because being there in the middle of nowhere was difficult, but finally making it to the end was super-good, also a second position that is really important.”

Martin’s race had started in worrying circumstances, as wheelspin off the line reminded him of his 2023 Qatar Grand Prix where he finished ninth.

“It was a bit of an eventful race, because I started quite bad, I started spinning like Qatar last season,” he said. “So then I was scared because I was thinking maybe my rear tyre isn’t working anymore.

“Then I could pass Alex [Marquez] quite fast, then when I overtook Pedro [Acosta], it was maybe not the best place, but I saw that he went wide in turn seven, so I say ‘okay maybe I try’.

“But then I locked the front. Luckily we both didn’t crash. I went on the orange, but then my bike was quite fast on the straight and I could overtake him fast.

“Then it was just trying to manage the tyre, trying to focus on the feeling. But it was a really difficult race.”

Overall, Martin was happy with his weekend, for his performance, consistency, and for the result those bore in the standings.

“I feel it was a really good weekend,” he said. “I feel that after the crash [in qualifying] to be able to go back on-track, [a situation] that normally when this happens to me I always go with a lot of energy on the second stint and I always crash in the past. So I was calm, so I feel I am a more mature rider.

“Normally when there is no grip I struggle a lot, but I feel I improve in all conditions. This morning in the Warm Up with really strange conditions I was first, straight away in the FP1 I was second behind Marc.

“So, taking out Marc I feel I was much stronger than the rest, so this is really good.

“At the moment, my battle is more with Pecco [Bagnaia], so it’s important to be faster than him.”

Next, MotoGP heads to Misano for two races spaced two weeks apart, with a test after the first one. Last year, Martin took dominant wins in both the Sprint and Grand Prix there.

“Last season [Misano] was incredible for me,” he said. “I won both races, and I felt super good, I felt much faster than the rest. But, for sure, all the Italian riders train a lot there and will be fast. We will see there, [...] we will try to be ready.”