“I overtook him in his better place!” Jorge Martin vows to keep the “same way of riding” after a frantic Sprint second.
Jorge Martin finished off an impressive comeback to second place in the Thai Sprint after dropping down the order after lap one.
Shehryar Bin Shahid 26th October 2024
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It was a chaotic opening few corners from Jorge Martin who saw himself dropping down to fifth position at the end of lap one. But the championship leader put on a fiery performance to climb back up the order by overtaking the likes of Acosta, Marquez and then his chief championship rival Francesco Bagnaia.
Despite showcasing a spectacular pace, Martin’s race was a bit messy as he went off the track no less than four times while pushing to close in on Bagnaia. Lucky for him, two of those excursions were on the blue painted zones.
“The start was great!” Explained Jorge Martin when speaking to TNT Sport about his start.
“I went into the first corner a bit aggressive, but then I saw that to overtake Enea, I was going to hit Pecco, so I decided to release brakes, even if I was [going to] lose a lot of positions than I did, but I think it was the less risky option, so I went to the blue.”
“I lost five positions, but from that point, I just tried to give my hundred percent.”
When speaking about the difficulty of racing from behind, Martin did point that heat and high tyre pressures did play a critical role in today’s race.
“I was recovering; it was difficult [due to the heat]. Normally, I’m more in front, so I have less pressure, so it’s a bit better.”
“But when I was behind the pack, it was super hard; I was struggling a lot, but finally I could recover the gap and finish in the second position.”
With today’s result over Bagnaia, Martin can now officially finish second to Bagnaia and still win the championship even if Bagnaia wins all of the remaining races. But Martin swept this statistic as unimportant to him and still believes that he will have to fight like he has done so far to bolster his championship aspirations.
“I don’t want to think about it!” answered Martin when asked about the statistic.
“It’s still a long season. It’s a big challenge to beat Pecco (even now). He’s super strong; he’s so fast, and from now on, we need to race the same way like we did before.”
“I have to focus on myself and try to take the maximum out of every race, and that’s the way. That is what took me here, so I have to keep this way of riding.”
When asked about his ambitious overtake on Bagnaia at turn 6 direction change, Martin was pleased that he was able to make the move on that exact corner, as it was the corner where Bagnaia was previously very strong.
“Yes, it was a great move, I think. It was his strongest point of the track during the weekend. I was losing one tenth over there, and this time I could make a move there, so for sure mentally it was good for me, so I thought, “Okay, I overtook him in his better place!”
So now it’s time to attack and try to make this a small gap [in the standings].
