But this did come at the cost of burning up his tires as he had a massive shadow of ‘the shark’ lurking in his mirrors. 

Martin tried to break Acosta with his pace which he eventually did as Acosta crashed out in turn 10 but it left Martin vulnerable to Bagnaia who unlike Martin was saving his tires for a late push.

“It was a long, long race. My strategy was perfect for the last seven laps,” said Martin when quizzed about his battle with Bagnaia.

“I started really, really good. Not the start, but the first lap I did perfectly from seventh to third. I was able to overtake riders like Brad, like Pedro and Pecco, that yesterday was completely impossible.”

“And, yeah, my target was to be in the front because I feel a bit better. I felt this weekend with my pace I was able to be faster [in the race] and, yeah, maybe when I had Pedro this close, I used a bit too much the tire. Maybe the front I was using a bit too much and, yeah, when Pecco caught me, I had nothing else to fight with.”

With six laps to go, Martin could not resist the late-charging Francesco Bagnaia who took the lead in turn five with relative ease and cleared off into the distance.

“I tried to be with him for two laps, but I destroyed the rear tire. So at the end, I thought we had seven or eight seconds, I don’t know, and I just tried to finish and make it to the end.”

But despite finishing second, Martin can be satisfied with his performance this weekend, where despite not having the best pace, he was still able to gain on Bagnaia and Marquez by one point each.

“We are doing a great job, as we spoke on Thursday. The target is to do the best we can every weekend, but without looking at the other people. We have to race for ourselves, trying to do the best race possible, even if there were no people on the track.”

“So that’s the best pace we can and if they are stronger, they will beat us. If they are not, we will win. So that’s the target and let’s see if we can manage to keep this consistency.”

Martin will be looking to spoil the party next weekend at Mugello where he finished a close second to Bagnaia.

“And only a couple of days for the next one. You were on the podium there last year in Mugello. How much can you look forward to the next race? Yeah, last year I did third and second on the weekend.”

“So I feel confident. I feel Mugello is a nice race track for us, for Ducatis. With this more stable bike from this season, I feel we can improve.”

“Today we were super fast, much faster than last season. So I guess Peco will be the man to beat. Last season he was super strong.”

“But I think I am a bit better rider. So yeah, let’s try to beat him in their house. We’ll see you in a couple of days.”