Jorge Martin reckons he has demonstrated that he is the “same Martinator” after taking second in Barcelona following a tough start to his 2022 MotoGP campaign.
The one-time premier class race winner scored just a sole rostrum – a runners-up finish in Argentina – in the opening eight events prior to the Catalan Grand Prix, an eighth at the Circuit of the Americas his only other top ten as he struggled to get a feel for his 2022-spec Ducati.
The 2018 Moto3 world champion enjoyed a much stronger weekend in Barcelona though after making a step with the front of his machine allowed him to feel like it was “my bike”, meaning he could slide the bike in a more natural way and thus unlock the speed he has been searching for.
He affirmed that he is the “same Martinator” having had a “tough month” with criticism as fellow up-and-coming Ducati star Enea Bastianini has been stealing all the headlines as the Italian looks to take the manufacturer’s second factory berth that Martin was thought to be in pole position for.
“For sure being on the podium after a tough month with a lot of people talking – meaning it’s hard to be fully focussed – but today I demonstrated I’m the same Martinator with the same bike as the beginning of the year,” explained Martin.
“I’m confident for the next races because finally the bike is working, I think we made one click (of set-up change) all weekend and this is the main thing so I’m happy, it’s now more my bike and the confidence is coming back.
“The front is better, I can go into corners and then slide the rear, you can see photos from two weeks ago and I couldn’t even slide because I felt nothing from the front so all I could do was try and go round the corner not to crash, and riding like this is impossible.
“I tried to be ahead of Aleix (Espargaro) in order to keep the front tyre at a good temperature, but then he was fighting back and we had a good battle.
“Today I was trying to feel the track and give my 100%, I felt some moments but at least I could feel them whereas in the last races I just crashed so I’m happy, the Pramac team feels like a big family so hopefully from here we can get more great results.”
Martin admitted he had to work hard to try and “get the concentration back” after narrowly avoiding the violent Turn 1 crash caused by Takaaki Nakagami which eliminated not only the LCR rider, but also Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Suzuki’s Alex Rins.
The Spaniard says he was “lucky” to avoid being taken out, and could tell that “maybe there was going to be some disaster” after seeing Nakagami fly past under braking.
“I was really fast on the first part of the start, I overtook Fabio Di Gianantonio so I was close to Johann (Zarco) trying to overtake and then (Takaaki) Nakagami passed me so fast, so I could see maybe there was going to be some disaster,” continued Martin.
“He lost the front into the first corner, I was lucky to avoid that and then Pecco (Bagnaia) had crashed and it was difficult to get the concentration back but in the end I tried to be consistent and manage the tyre.”
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