until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
After a Phillip Island MotoGP ride that he felt was disturbed specifically by an “on the limit” Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin has vowed to be more aggressive going forward.
Martin and Marquez led the way from the front row and ran the opening half of the Australian Grand Prix in tandem out front, before both getting passed by eventual race winner Alex Rins.
It paved the way for the second half of the race in which the pair swapped positions on several occasions, before Marquez eventually went on to finish second behind Rins while Martin was shuffled down to seventh.
Asked about keeping his cool in a frantic race in which he often found himself swarmed by other bikes, Martin said: “I was calm when I didn’t have Marquez behind. It was three times that he overtook me and put me away.
“I was not losing just one position but two. It was making everything even more difficult.
“But yeah, it’s racing, I need to improve, also be more aggressive, because it’s the only way actually to be fighting for victory and the podium.”
Of the times Marquez muscled ahead of Martin in the race, there was arguably just one overtake that clearly compromised the Pramac Ducati rider.
Initially, Martin was passed by both Pecco Bagnaia and Marquez in one move the tight Turn 4 now named after Jack Miller, but that appeared fairly civil and did not massively compromise Martin’s line.
Four laps later, Martin himself uncorked a clean but audacious move on Marquez through the sweeping Turn 8 right-hander – and it was on the following tour that Marquez responded by launching his Honda down the inside of Martin at the sharp Turn 10, taking both himself and Martin out wide and allowing the latter to be pounced on by Marco Bezzecchi.
Despite this, Martin got the opportunity to attack Marquez again just a lap later, sending it down the inside of the Southern Loop but with Marquez able to counter later in the long left-handed corner.
Martin then snuck past Marquez when the latter ran himself and Rins wide at Turn 4 on lap 22, yet would again cede position to the six-time champion in the second part of the Southern Loop – in a move that, like the one before, appeared fairly tidy.
It was therefore the Turn 10 lunge and the way Marquez raced Rins up ahead that likely conditioned Martin’s reaction.
“There were some points where it was on the limit, that’s for sure,” Martin said of Marquez. “Because I was already inside. And I was losing another position.
“That’s why I was, like, tired about those manoeuvres. But we all know what happened with this situation.
“I will try to be the same aggressiveness as the rest for the future.”
Getting passed by Luca Marini ended any opportunity Martin had of giving Marquez another fight before the end of the season, and the charging Enea Bastianini soon relegated the Pramac man to seventh.
Yet Martin would finish just 0.884s off the win, and lamented the fact he may have taken it too easy on his tyres through the race, leaving him with potential pace that he hadn’t actually extracted.
“I was with the front group all the race, I had the speed,” said Martin, before alluding to a lack of confidence in braking, which has been a recurring issue for him with the 2022-spec Ducati.
“I was missing a bit the braking point, the entry into the corner I hadn’t the confidence to brake harder.
“If you don’t overtake in this type of race, then you get overtaken. I was 0.8s from victory, that’s what’s killing me today. Because if you are that close, you can also win.”
