MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin laments “painful” Motegi sprint
“It could have been much better…”
Jorge Martin says the crash in qualifying which left him 11th on the grid for the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix led to a “painful” sprint race in fourth.
The Pramac rider crashed his GP24 Ducati in the dying stages of Q2 on Saturday morning at Motegi and was consigned to the fourth row of the grid.
In the sprint he was able to come through to finish fourth, but chief title rival Francesco Bagnaia won and cut Martin’s championship lead down from 21 points to 15 ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.
In the iffy conditions of the sprint, Martin admits he was “struggling to get some confidence”.
“For sure, it’s a good result,” he told Motogp.com.
“I’m happy because of the result, but it could have been much better if I didn’t make the qualifying mistake.
“It’s a bit painful, because I think we have the potential to do a bit more.
“But anyway, I’m happy because I have confidence for tomorrow.
“It’s a much longer race, so I think I have potential to be maybe fighting for the podium.
“Today, when there was some rain drops I was struggling to get some confidence.
“After Pedro [Acosta’s] crash I was just cutting too much. So, tomorrow I hope to be a bit more competitive and try to work on those details to improve.”
Martin says he wasn’t taking big risks in the sprint amid the spots of rain that fell because of his championship situation.
“It’s so difficult,” he said of the conditions on Saturday in Japan.
“You just push and when you see some rain drops you try to just not lean the same, try to ride like on wet.
“But with the slicks it’s not easy. For sure there are some riders who have not much to lose, so they risk a bit more.
“But ones like Pecco and me are battling for the championship, so you need to take less risk and try to not crash.”
Martin struggled on Friday for a comfortable feeling on his GP24, but still had good race pace. Looking ahead to the grand prix, he says the sprint allowed him to understand where can improve.
“I think I have more confidence now than before the sprint, actually,” he said.
“I saw some things I can improve for tomorrow and I think we have the potential for a podium fight.
“We will go for it. I think we can be close to Pecco tomorrow. The important thing is to see if we can do the same start, and from that point we will try to build a good result.”
