Jorge Martin: “Marc had nothing to lose... ‘wow, he's aggressive’”
“I knew he had something else, maybe not in terms of speed, but the risk that he can take”
When Marc Marquez span sideways off the Australian MotoGP grid and Jorge Martin surged into the lead from pole position, many would have bet on the Sprint winner completing a perfect Phillip Island double.
But Marquez mounted a shock recovery from 13th to 6th during the opening lap and was behind only title leaders Martin and Francesco Bagnaia by lap 6 of 27.
Martin then momentarily lost the lead after running wide just before the midway stage but firmly re-passed Bagnaia, as Marquez moved into second.
The pair pulled away from the Italian, with Martin keeping Marquez’s GP23 at bay until the Gresini rider made a long-expected pass at Turn 4.
Martin responded on the straight, but Marquez settled the contest with a harder pass on his fellow Spaniard - again at the hairpin - with three laps to go.
“It was a great weekend, doing the pole position, winning yesterday and being on the podium today,” said Martin. “I wanted to win. I tried my best. But actually the feeling wasn't like yesterday.
“I was struggling to put the power on the ground so I couldn't make a gap to Pecco and Marc, who both improved from yesterday, even though my race was quite strong.
“In the middle of the race, I started to feel a bit better but then I almost crashed in corner 1. Pecco overtook me, but straight away I was attacking back."
But when battling Marquez, the world championship lead weighed heavily on Martin.
“I tried to stay in first position for the last few laps, but Marc had nothing to lose, so it was much more difficult from my side to battle," he said.
“I tried to be close, but he had something else. Maybe not in terms of speed, but in terms of the risk that he can take, or the risk that I can take.”
That risk level was illustrated when Marquez’s race-winning pass pushed both of them wide at the hairpin.
“I just thought, ‘wow, he's aggressive’,” Martin smiled, but the location of the pass wasn't a surprise.
“[Turn 4] was the only point where I think he was stronger than me. I was struggling a lot with the right side of the front tyre from the 5th-6th lap and it was the only place where I could hear him right behind me.”
Nevertheless, with Marquez still 79 points adrift in the standings, the title battle is very much Martin vs Bagnaia. And the Pramac rider doubled his advantage over the reigning champion this weekend.
“Any chance that I have to increase the world championship lead, I will take it,” Martin said.
“It was nice to have a small battle with Pecco because normally he's in front and pulls away or I'm in front and pull away. So finally at least we were battling for one lap and I enjoyed this.
“But anyway, I lost 11 points last week, now I've gained 10 points. Next week we don't know. So we have to be focusing race by race.”
Martin takes his 20-point lead straight into next weekend's Thai MotoGP, an event he won last season.
“We have the experience from last season,” Martin said. “We know how to work on the bike for next weekend, so I'm pretty happy that we can start with a good set base set up and do a great job.”
Buriram is the first of three remaining rounds that will decide the destination of the 2024 title.
