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It was a race totally dominated by Jorge Martin in Portimao, who started from the front row and imposed himself at the head of the field from the very first corners. The Spaniard made the lessons of the past his own by managing a race in which tyre wear was a risk factor to be kept under control.
Obtaining from the start a lead of a few tenths over an albeit very fast Vinales in the early stages of the race, the Spaniard did not overdo it by making his own the lesson of Indonesia last season and crossed the finish line well clear of the Ducati of Bastianini, second after the breakdown of Vinales' Aprilia. A victory this one that hands Jorge Martin the lead in the standings with 60 points, overtaking Bagnaia who did not finish the race following contact with Marquez in Turn 5.
"I'm really proud of the work we did this weekend, " commented Jorge Martin , "I knew that with the medium on the rear the feeling on the bike would be better than on Saturday. Starting at the front of the race was my goal and that was the key to the win. I also closed the lines a lot in Turn 3, another key to this win. I was able to not stress the tyres too much in the early laps and towards the middle of the race I saw that my lead over my rivals remained constant, when they stepped up the pace I did too, so when I saw that I had 7 tenths of a gap I could relax knowing that from there I would only have to manage the race. It was like in Indonesia, I learned a good lesson there, there's no use winning with a wider margin, so those 7 tenths were enough to win. "
When you saw from the screens that Pecco and Marquez were out of the race, what did you think?
"My first thought was 'okay, I have to finish this race,' but then I realized and I said 'it's not enough to finish it, you have to win,' the last corners were challenging but that's the beauty of this sport, that's a difficult corner where if you want to attack the trajectories will be very close, and so it was in their case."
From the way you managed the various stages of the race, would you say you have matured as a rider?
"I think this was the most mature race of my career. This is the track where I almost lost everything in 2021, I almost stopped racing. I fractured my bones in Turn 7 and today I am here as a winner, so I think I have matured a lot, this track has taught me a lot. This win gives me a lot of confidence to face the rest of the season. Today the start was easier than I expected, then I had to manage by keeping my rivals at a distance, but at the end of the race I think I still had enough left to be able to push on the 1'38''5. It was a pretty 'comfortable' race, when you put yourself at the front of the race everything is easier."
The chattering disappeared today.
"We're trying to figure out what it's due to, we have problems when we push from the first laps, we have to try to be more relaxed in the early stages of the race. Today went well and I rode quite relaxed, but when I started to push the idea that the problem might recur crossed my mind but it wasn't there. Now we'll have to work on this because on Saturdays it creates problems for us and has become one of our weaknesse."
Are you surprised to find Pedro on the podium and already so fast and competitive?
"I'm not surprised at all, he reminds me of myself, even I in my rookie year closed on the podium in my second race. Definitely he will be one of the toughest riders to beat in the future. We all knew he had the talent, and today he proved it."
This is the first time you've ended a weekend at the top of the standings.
"The past two times it lasted less than 24 hours, but it's never easy to maintain the lead in the standings. Obviously I'm very satisfied but we don't know what will happen in Austin and in the coming weeks."
