MotoGP Malaysia: ‘Disappointed’ Jorge Martin: ‘I tried to put pressure on Pecco’

Having beaten Francesco Bagnaia in the Sprint, Jorge Martin went into Sunday’s Malaysian MotoGP confident of trimming Bagnaia’s title lead down to single digits.
Jorge
Jorge

Instead, he spent most of 🅷th💝e 20-laps watching helplessly as Bagnaia’s factory Ducati disappeared into the distance.

Martin ✤briefly led the field into Turn 1 but ran wide😼 and was passed by the factory Ducatis of Bagnaia and team-mate Enea Bastianini, plus Gresini’s Sprint winner Alex Marquez.

With Bastianini and Marquez edging away up front, Martin was at least 🥃on the rear wheel of Bagnaia. Martin, who began the race just 11 points behind the reigning champion, then attacked at Turn 14 on lap 3 and turn 4 on lap 4.

But each time Bagnaia 🎶repassed him firmly on the exit and Martin then remained strangely subdued in four✱th for the remainder of the race, dropping every further back.

“After six laps I started to lose ground with Pecco,” Martin told MotoGP.com. ꧃“It was strange because I tried to push and to put some pressure on him, so maybe he made a mistake,ꦛ but at some point I started to be close to a crash.

ꦅ“It's not w൲hat I wanted for sure, but I decided to close the throttle just to finish, it's the maximum I could do.”

All oജf which means he heads into Qatar next weekend now trailing Bagnaia by 14 points.

“I’m a bit disappointed. I thought I was able to rec🔯o💦ver some points today. I was feeling great at the beginning of the race,” he said.

“I had to be happy with that P4. It’s not what I expected today. I expected to fight for at least the podium, or beat Pecco. But 🐷it is wha𓆏t it is and let's move on to the next one.”

With 74 points still available, the title fight remains well and truly alive, especially with Martin 🍨having proven speed in Qatar.

“I reall♔y like Qata𒈔r. I did two pole positions in the last two seasons and I did also a podium in my second race in MotoGP. So I'm really looking forward to it,” he said.

“We h෴ave to understand the new asphalt. Let's see with the tyres. But for sure it's a track where I am super fast.”

One positive for Martin, who hinted that his Buriram tyre pressure warning meant he had to start with higher tyre pressures at Sepang, which may have contributed to his lack of feeling in the grand prix, is that Bagnaia has now also used up his one ‘official war💝ning’.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzu🥀ki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury ♎issues.

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