Martin was one of three riders to use the soft rear tyre, and although he manageꩵd it near perfection, the Pramac rider ran out of grip with two laps remaining.

Slowly being caught with five laps to go, it wasn’t until the penultimate lap that Martin was losiﷺng huge amounts of time with every passing sector.

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Martin was then overtaken by team-mate Johann Zarco at 💃the start of lap 27, which began a slide down to fifth.

But speaking after the🥂 race, Martin’s team manager Borsoi defended his ride🍸r and more importantly the tyre choice. 

“I’m fully in support of my rider,” said Borꩵsoi. “It was our decision. We will never give up and we have a lot of races in front of us. 

“He showed incredible speed al✃l weekend and he is the best rider on track. He lost the race with only one lap to go. Hꦑe made incredible qualifying and tomorrow is another day. 

“Then we have eight races in front of us.”

With two laps t🤪o go it appeared as though Zarco would be able t𒁏o help Martin stay out front after overtaking Brad Binder. 

But even with the overtake, Zarco continued to gai▨n oܫn Martin before having no choice but to pass his team-mate to avoid being attacked himself.

It was clea☂r that without the grip woes Martin would likely have💯 won the race, but nonetheless, Borsoi continued to back the tyre decision.

“It was not a huge gamble. It was our decision and the decision of the team.🎐 It is what it is. We will see in the next race.”