Jorge Martin says his defeat to Pecco Bagnaia in MotoGP's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint stemmed from a loss of concentration brought on by a track limits warning.
Martin had led the first seven laps of the sprint, but ran wide at Turn 13 on lap eight, opening the door for title rival Bagnaia to swoop in for the eventual win.
It meant that instead of heading into Sunday's grand prix race with a 10-point buffer Martin now has only four points in hand over Bagnaia - so a win would guarantee the latter first place in the standings coming out of the weekend.
Bagnaia was clearly putting pressure on Martin by that point in the race, thriving in the quick right-handers of the third sector, yet both Martin and Bagnaia believe it will have been far from a straightforward overtake if not for the error.
"I did a small mistake that I paid for heavily," said Martin.
"I lost a bit the concentration. I'd just received a track limits warning in a bad place, I think. I looked at the dash in a bad place, and then I missed the line by two metres, and I let Pecco past.
"Till that moment I think I was really in a good position. Even if he was close, I was having everything under control in a really good pace."
The track limits warning indicates that the next breach would incur a long-lap penalty, which Martin did manage to avoid.
A mistake that cost @88jorgemartin the victory 😱
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 21, 2024
The Championship leader went wide at T13 and @PeccoBagnaia said “Thank you, sir”! 😎#EmiliaRomagnaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/hceeKcvjDQ
It comes as MotoGP tentatively prepares to introduce race-control-to-rider radio for 2025 as a safety measure - with the possibility of riders being distracted going into corners and the potentially dangerous consequences of that the main concern.
However, MotoGP sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta indicated earlier this week when asked by The Race that the sending of radio messages to riders would be tied in with GPS-determined positioning on the track.
"I just looked into it [the dashboard] for millisecond but I missed the line," reiterated Martin - who acknowledged that having riders distracted on corner entry can be a concern.
A better fight on Sunday?
Martin, however, was optimistic about his outlook for Sunday, despite the stereotype that shorter races favour him while longer races favour Bagnaia.
"When Pecco overtook me, I thought I was going to lose one second. But then I saw I was able to close the gap. So maybe two-three more laps I could even attack.
"So I'm confident for tomorrow that even if he overtakes me, I can fight back. In other tracks I struggle a lot to follow him, but here I feel I can follow him quite close and it's not a big problem for the front [tyre pressure/temperature]."
It was a change compared to the weekend at Misano two weeks' ago, when Bagnaia likewise found himself behind Martin in the sprint but couldn't reel him in due to the impact following Martin was having on his front tyre.
"I was catching him," continued Martin. "So maybe even being behind is better, I don't know. The good thing is that if he overtakes me or I overtake him, I think we will see a bit more battle, not one rider pulling away.
"So this is good. Looking forward to fight back tomorrow."
