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Leaving behind a complex weekend in Austin, Jorge Martin arrives in Jerez del la Frontera as the championship leader, with 80 points and a great desire to do well on one of his home tracks.
"The one in Austin was a difficult weekend, although I managed to save it after the crash in qualifying. I did my best, which resulted in a fourth position, but they were still good points for the championship," said the Madrid native at the press conference, then talking about his goals for this Round: "The Spanish Grand Prix here in Jerez is always special, and I think I've already got a podium here in Moto2. Getting on the podium is definitely a good goal to try to achieve at this track, where I also aim to improve on last year's results. I remember I was very competitive on the pace, but I was struggling to overtake. I will work on this aspect, to be faster and try to get on the podium in both races."
For the Pramac team rider, after all, standing on the top step of the podium, in front of the Spanish public, would have a different flavor than in other races.
"I think winning here would be special. I remember my parents used to come here to see Crivillé and Doohan even before I was born, so it would be very special. I have butterflies in my stomach being here in Jerez, because it's a unique track and it's even more special to be here as the championship leader. There is also Assen, though, which is an incredible track. There are three or four really special tracks and this is one of them," acknowledged Joge, who is ready to fight, "The points I have accumulated are just as easy to lose. It's a very long season and the rivals are very fierce: Enea and Maverick are more consistent than ever, then there's Pedro and Marc, who is faster than ever, and Pecco who will definitely reach form as he goes along. Pedrosa will definitely do well too, maybe he can't win, but he could play for the podium. If he wasn't prepared, he wouldn't be here. However, we are also ready."
A champion of regularity, with five podiums in six heats, the 26-year-old then spoke about the factors that have led him to be so consistent in performance.
"Already last year, from the middle of the season on, I was always competitive and in the top positions, and I think I just continued with that consistency, trying to focus especially on the first part of the year, which is a point where I always struggled," he explained, " I'm trying to work better and keep calmer in those situations where I used to get nervous or struggle, trying to stay more relaxed and breathe. That's the key."
The chattering problems experienced in practice and in the race, however, did not always make life easy for Martinator.
"As for me, I started having problems as early as during the race simulation in the Malaysia test. We thought it was a tire problem, because sometimes it happens to find one that does not work perfectly. However, the situation came up again in Qatar, while Pecco never had this problem: he was always fast and was printing records everywhere. It seemed to depend more on me, but I think it comes so much from the way you approach the race: if you start very fast then you suffer - he explained - I can't push at 100 percent, but Ducati is trying to solve it, also because, if we achieved these results with this problem, imagine what we can do without it. I think this bike has a lot of potential, but at the moment I have to be very gentle with the tires, which then turn out to be very consistent, because if you have chattering problems from the beginning, then the situation is completely different."
Could the cooler temperatures expected this weekend make the chattering worse? " I don't know. It's very unpredictable. It depends on the situations, because it's a problem that maybe sometimes we don't have in practice, but then it shows up in the race. It appears and disappears ," Jorge noted, " It's hard to understand, but it seems that in Austin we were able to find a solution between Saturday and Sunday, so I think it will get better. If it does, I will try to fight with the others and get the best possible result."
The first three rounds of the season have returned much faster races and times than in the past, which could also be a problem on a tight track like the Andalusian one.
"Maybe the bikes have improved a little bit, but I think this improvement depends mainly on the new generation of tires, which we have this year ," Martin said, commenting on the improvement in performance, but without showing concern from a safety point of view: "The track is very narrow and the walls are very close. But I'm sure the Dorna team has done a great job placing the air fences to reduce damage. I hope it will be a safe weekend for everyone."
The presence in the Rookies Cup of the first ever Polish rider was then an opportunity for the Spaniard to take a dip into the past and think about what he would say now to the Martin who was once involved in the championship.
"I am very happy that there is a Polish rider, because it is always nice to have riders from other countries. I have good memories of the Rookies also with Enea, with whom I had a lot of fun there ," he said, "There is not much I can say to the me from those days, because if I made it to MotoGP it means I did a good job. What I can advise a young rider, though, is to take advantage of this opportunity, because when you are a kid you don't understand where you are and maybe you take everything as a joke or a game. But I think the Red Bull Rookies Cup is a very good school that you have to take advantage of to try to have a chance to become a MotoGP rider."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
