The master of Sprints
For the 11th time in 23 Sprint races Jorge Martin was the king of Saturday. The Spaniard from the Ducati Prima Pramac team was the only one among the big names, together with the now unstoppable rookie Pedro Acosta, not to slip to the ground in the Jerez elimination race, taking home victory number three in 2024 between GP and Sprint . This time Martinator he also won by using his head and ‘settling’ at a certain stage of the race. Marc Marquez’s crash opened his way to the top step of the podium, which came shortly after the #93 had taken over the reins of the race.
The study of the track
“I do the best I can, using my head as much as possible – Martin commented to Sky Sport MotoGP, increasingly on the run in the championship with a 29-point margin over second place – today was a day in which it was easier to fall than get to the finish line.” The Iberian explained how his success was also the result of an accurate pre-race study of the actual conditions of the track. “I concentrated on seeing where the water was during the warm up and the out lap – explained the #89 – even looking at the Moto2 you could see that there was water in some points. I wanted to understand where to go to be fast straight away. I had some problems on the first lap, but then I put on a good rhythm and passed Binder.”
What a duel with Marquez
The crucial phase of the race, however, revolved around the duel between him and Marquez: “I made a mistake at turn 7 and Marquez caught me and immediately passed – explained Martin – there I tried to stay as close to him as I could. He was very fit today. Surely I would have finished 2nd and I would have been happy about it, but he made that mistake and so I went to the front and calmed down, because Pedro (Acosta) was far behind.” However, the weekend is not over yet: “Tomorrow? It will be another story because we will use another tyre. I’m calm because the medium tire is much more stable and constant and the bike becomes easier to ride. But with a Marc like this, with Bezzecchi in form and with Pecco wanting to push, it will be a long and complicated race. The problem at the start? I wasn’t able to brake hard at Turn 1 and my bike remained down until Turn 5. We need to understand why, but I still managed to get back on track.”
