How Marc Marquez’s Thai MotoGP crash saved Jorge Martin’s championship lead
“I was always really close to crashing”
Jorge Martin says he would have crashed without Marc Marquez doing so in front of him in the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix because he was able to anticipate losing the front.
The championship leader finished second in Sunday’s wet Thai GP at Buriram while title rival Francesco Bagnaia dominated for a vital win.
Martin led briefly in the early stages but ran wide at Turn 3 on lap five and dropped behind Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.
Marquez crashed on lap 14 at Turn 8 while running second, with Martin having his own big front end scare directly behind him.
Speaking after the race, Martin says he was able to save his own crash because he saw Marquez go down in front of him - and would have lost the lead in the championship without it.
“From the beginning I was feeling super good, but straight away I saw that the feeling the feeling wasn’t the warm-up feeling,” Martin, whose championship lead has been cut to 17 points, began.
“I was sliding a lot from the rear. I was even increasing that gap and at that point I saw they had something else.
“I went wide in corner three and Pecco and Marc overtook me. Then I tried to stay close to them because I thought about a potential move at the end of the race.
“But as soon as Marc crashed I also lost the front the same as him. But I was able to save it.
“I went wide, I was able to save that crash and at that point I was able to control the distance to Jack [Miller] and to Pedro [Acosta] because they were coming strong.”
He added: “I had a lot of moments during the race. I was always really close to crashing.
“So, I was always ready to save it. I saw Marc lose the front, so then I was prepared to lose the front also.
“So, that’s how I saved it. I think without Marc in front of me I would have crashed.
“So thanks to that… I’m sorry for him for sure, but thanks to the crash I was able to understand and anticipate a bit.”
The rainfall prior to the race heaped tension on the title challengers, with Martin noting that “I don’t want anybody to feel what I felt before the race: I think being Pecco or me at this stage of the championship in these conditions is not really good.”
But despite the scary race for Martin and losing out to Bagnaia, he praised his rival and felt it was “a really good weekend” only to lose three points in the standings.
“Yeah, trust me it was a really long race,” he said.
“The last few laps I was thinking ‘fuck, I just want it to be dry’.
“I thought that in dry I had something more than Pecco at the moment, so I wanted it dry.
“He was super strong. I mean, he’s a great champion.
“He’s not a three-time world champion for nothing. He’s strong in all the conditions. I just tried to give his pace and just losing three points is a really good weekend.”
