Jorge Martin “a bit scared” about Marc Marquez’s late Australia sprint charge
“Maybe he was the one able to catch me”
MotoGP Australian Grand Prix sprint winner Jorge Martin admits he was “a bit scared” from the late pressure Marc Marquez put on him in Saturday's race.
The Pramac rider dominated qualifying to take pole ahead of Marquez and converted that into the lead on the opening lap of the sprint, as the latter ran wide at Turn 1.
Marquez dropped to eighth while Martin built up a lead of almost a second over the first lap, and would swell this gap to 3.2s by the time the Gresini rider got into second on lap eight of 13.
While Martin ultimately controlled the pace to beat Marquez by 1.520s at the chequered flag, he admits he was still wary of the threat posed by the eight-time world champion.
“I’m so happy. It’s the same feeling as last season, [but] having a bit more,” Martin, whose championship lead is now 16 points, told TNT Sport.
“For sure, right now Marc was really equal to me in terms of pace but he was a bit unlucky at the beginning of the race.
“So, I think for tomorrow it will be difficult. But for today I have to enjoy. I feel really good. For sure the first laps it was difficult to make this gap to [Marco] Bezzecchi.
“But as soon as Pecco [Bagnaia] went into second, I was capable of improving that gap a lot and then when I had 3.5s I said ‘Ok, it’s enough, slow down a bit’.
“The win was really difficult also. It was really inconsistent, so every corner was really different.
“So, you need to adapt really fast. But overall I’m super happy and we will try to be ready for tomorrow.
“For sure, when Marc went into second I had three seconds [over him], but then I pushed again till I had 3.5s.
“Then I said ‘Ok, it’s enough’. I was a bit scared about Marc because there was still three laps, three seconds, maybe he was the one able to catch me.
“But I was able to increase it, so from that point I was just trying to make it to the end.”
Most of the field, including Martin, used the soft rear tyre in the sprint but he doesn’t yet know if it’s a viable option for the grand prix due to a lack of long run data.
“Difficult to say,” Martin replied when asked if he would use the soft on Sunday.
“For sure it was good today. The last few laps I felt already the drop.
“So, I don’t know. We didn’t have time to try the medium, so maybe tomorrow’s warm-up will be important.
“It’s a difficult question, a big question mark. But for sure Ducati has great engineers who can help us to make the choice.”
