Jorge Martin: “I’m the best rider” in MotoGP “and the numbers show it”
Current championship leader thinks he’s best of the 2024 crop
MotoGP points leader Jorge Martin believes he is “the best rider there is” right now, though concedes he has to “polish things”.
Martin finished runner-up in the championship last season to Francesco Bagnaia and has led the 2024 points for most of the campaign.
After a disastrous San Marino Grand Prix, however, he saw his lead cut from 26 points to seven after a strategy gamble in iffy conditions dropped him a lap down the order to 15th.
In an interview with DAZN prior to last weekend’s Misano round, Martin was asked who he felt was the best rider on the grid currently.
“It's very difficult,” Martin began.
“What does being the best rider mean? It's very ambiguous, it's very difficult.
“There's a high level, the four of us who are there in the fight, the four with Ducati, Pecco [Bagnaia], Marc [Marquez], Enea [Bastianini] and I are one step ahead - that's clear.
“At the moment, it may seem arrogant, but I think I'm the best rider there is.
“I have to polish things, work and improve, that's something I can't stop doing, because if not, in the end, in half a year you go from first to eighth.
“But I think I'm the fastest there is, and the numbers show it, it's not just me saying it.”
Martin has scored the most poles of any rider this season, with five to his credit versus two for Bagnaia, one for Bastianini, one for Maverick Vinales, two for Aleix Espargaro and two for Marc Marquez.
He also has the most sprint wins than anyone with four, though that is only one more than chief title rival Bagnaia after 13 rounds of the 2024 season.
And in grand prix victories, Martin has only managed two against Bagnaia’s seven, while Marc Marquez has now matched the Pramac rider’s tally following his San Marino GP triumph.
Martin’s championship lead has largely been kept intact through the Spaniard’s consistency, having failed to score points on just three occasions in 2024.
In the same DAZN interview, Martin admits he ‘felt like a fool’ after Ducati elected to go back on its decision to promote him to its factory team in favour of Marquez.
Martin will join the factory Aprilia squad instead in 2025 alongside Marco Bezzecchi, while Pramac Racing will ditch Ducati machinery to partner up with Yamaha.
