English
Italiano
Fourth place in the GP of the Americas is certainly not the result Jorge Martin would have signed up for on the eve of the race and, presumably, not even after the first few laps of it. Having taken the lead after a good duel with Pedro Acosta, the Pramac Racing team rider seemed to have the potential to continue his string of podiums on the Austin track. However, a mistake just before the middle of the race thwarted all his efforts, leaving him at the foot of the podium after a battle in the finale with Enea Bastianini.
"This track is quite demanding and I thought I would be a bit worse from a physical point of view, instead I'm in pretty good shape, but it was certainly a complicated race with the soft - commented the Madrid native at the end of the race - I didn't have another choice, so I tried to manage at the beginning and even managed to open a small gap with Marc and Pedro. But then I made a mistake in Turn 11, I went wide on the eighth or ninth lap, so they were able to catch me and pass me, also because I was not particularly strong under braking. From that moment, I tried to get my race back on track and maintain my pace. I tried to give 100 percent in the last five laps, but Enea had something more and in the end I finished fourth. It's not what I wanted, but I picked up 20 points this weekend, it was a good race and I enjoyed the battles. It was a decent result."
Albeit with an ounce of bitterness, the 26-year-old can only draw a positive balance of this Texas weekend, in which he was confirmed at the top of the World Championship standings, with a 21-point lead over Bastianini, his direct opponent.
"It's something that I don't care about at the moment and I don't like to think about it, but I'm happy to already have 80 points, which is quite a lot - Martin commented - We have to be happy and continue on this path, because we are working pretty well focusing are on ourselves and trying to improve the results of last season. This is a track where I've struggled a lot in the past and where now we've managed to take a lot of points and it's certainly better to be leading the standings than tenth place, so I'm happy."
Although the defending champion, Francesco Bagnaia, experienced two underwhelming races in Austin, Martinator does not feel like taking away the stripes as his top title contender.
"I think there are several riders who can fight for the championship. I think Pecco is still the favorite, because he won last year and is still number one, " he noted , "The opponents are strong, we have Marc and also Pedro, who is really good and also consistent. You never know. Enea was also competitive all weekend. The important thing is to be fast everywhere and stay focused."
Being consistent will be of paramount importance in this championship, and the Spaniard knows he is already off to a good start.
"All the champions have been consistent, so we have to be consistent as well, but I would say we are doing a good job, as I have won five podiums out of six races We have to keep working in this way and if in a weekend like this I do fourth I am happy and when I have the opportunity I will try to win: that is my goal," stressed Jorge, who in America had to deal with a few too many vibrations on his Ducati.
"In the GP it went better than on Saturday. We are working a lot, but I still don't feel at my best with the bike , " he admitted, " I still felt some vibrations, not many, but I guess I lost one or two tenths a lap because of that. This is what I had available and I had to run like this, but it's not an excuse; we have to fix it."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
