Lean king Jorge Martin 'ready to make good things happen' in 2022

Rookie Jorge Martin made history last season as the first satellite Ducati rider to win a MotoGP race.

Along the way, the young Spaniard also became known for one of the most extreme riding styles in the premier-class, hanging far from his Pramac Ducati at angles of over 60-degrees.

The official MotoGP lean record stands at 70-degrees, by Marc Marquez, but that was while saving a front-end fall at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.

In Martin's case the extreme lean, which sometimes sees his shoulder skimming the asphalt, is a deliberate part of his technique.

At 1m 68cm, Martin is 8cm smaller than Ducati's title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia and 5cm smaller than Bagnaia's factory team-mate Jack Miller, meaning he has to hang further off the bike during cornering to shift the (combined rider-and-bike) centre of gravity inwards.

The result is that Martin, like Miller, now has to be wary of his Ducati fairing scraping the asphalt and levering the tyres off the ground.

"Since Austria I have been touching the fairing down, but also Jack [Miller] is a lot. I've crashed because of this, so we have to be careful and sometimes we need to change the set-up," Martin said.

Austria was the scene of Martin's memorable debut victory, holding off reigning champion Joan Mir and future champion Fabio Quartararo as the only Ducati in the top five.

It completed a remarkable comeback for the former Moto3 champion and Moto2 race winner, who announced his arrival in MotoGP with a spectacular 14th to 4th rocket start in his very first premier-class race in Qatar.

Pole position and a podium followed the week after, but then came a huge accident during practice at Portimao, leaving him with multiple fractures and out of three further events.

The summer break gave Martin time to heal and he took three more podiums, including the Austrian win, as he rose back up the championship standings to ninth and sealed the rookie of the year crown.

Martin's raw qualifying speed was even more impressive, taking three pole positions and qualifying outside of the top five just once in the final nine rounds.

"It's been a nice season with a lot of up and downs," Martin reflected. "We started in a good way and then after the injury it was quite difficult to come back strong. But anyway, we did it.

"I'm happy with the performance, four poles, four podiums, one victory. I feel super strong also the last two races were super good with Portimao being close to the podium and Valencia almost the win.

"Since Austria I felt competitive in all the tracks," Martin added. "So I think we're ready to make good things happen [in 2022].

"I don’t know for the championship, but I think fighting for the top five at the end of the year will be a nice target. For sure I will try to battle for the win or podium always."

To achieve that, Martin pinpoints where he is losing time to Bagnaia.

"Compared to Pecco in Valencia, in corners 4 and 5 he can turn better. For sure it is the style. On the left corners I am better. So I need to improve on the right corners and this will be a big step for me," he explained.

While Martin lacked strength on his return from injury, he was instantly quick, and thus has no concerns at being off a MotoGP bike for the two-month winter break leading up to the 2022 Sepang test.

"Before Montmelo I was off the bike for two months injured and in FP1 I was less than a second from the top," he said. "At the end of the day, I don’t think it will be difficult and it is the same for everybody. I will train, also on the Panigale, until January and be ready for sure."

Already having access to the latest Desmosedisci machines at Pramac, should Martin build on his race-winning rookie season there would only be one place higher he can go in the Ducati hierarchy for 2023; the factory team.

That won't be an easy task with plenty of competition for the coveted official Desmosedici seats, not least from Bagnaia and Miller. But Martin's rookie season heroics will also have caught the eyes of other factory teams who could well step in with an attractive offer…