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Today Martin was only worried for a moment, when he was waiting to start on the grid. His Ducati was surrounded by technicians, including Gigi Dall'Igna. “There was a problem with a sensor, it gave an error and seemed broken, but then everything went well. I was lucky, because if there had been a problem I wouldn't have been able to race,” he remembers those moments with a smile at the danger he escaped. A technical failure today was the only thing that could have stopped Jorge, who added another pole position and another sprint race victory to his list of trophies.
“We worked very well, I set the track record and won the sprint race: I couldn't be happier – he summed up - I knew I could keep a good pace, but not so fast. I was hoping the race would be slower, but instead Brad pushed me to the limit to make a difference. I increased the gap to him and, when the tyres dropped, he suffered more than me. We got some good information for tomorrow."
You are getting closer and closer to Bagnaia in the championship.
“I went from 66 points to 8, it's interesting, it's a dream. I didn't expect to find myself in this situation 2 or 3 months ago."
Now that you're here, how do you deal with it?
“My relationship with Pecco will not change, at least not on my part. I'm trying to take advantage of this moment and not change my mentality, that's the key, I want to enjoy it. Logically I want to win, but I don't have this responsibility, unlike Pecco, he is the one in the official team. Tomorrow too I will try to win and give my best, then we will see where I am in Valencia. You never know what can happen next race or next year, I'm winning races, I'm getting poles: I couldn't ask for more."
Are you making a difference with your head or with your wrist?
“There is not one without the other. Clearly I'm in a good moment from a mental point of view and I don't want to touch much on the bike because I know it works."
At the beginning of this weekend you seemed more in difficulty.
“I think I'm able to adapt to situations, today I used the same bike as yesterday. It was just a matter of finding my references, I compare my data with those of Pecco, Bezzecchi and this information helps me improve. Lap after lap I gain confidence, in the tests I worked with a lot of fuel and used tyres. Last year I struggled every time I got to the track, but now the bike works well straight away. I usually use my basic setup, not adapting it to the circuit every time is the key, I know well what the limit is."
What do you expect from tomorrow's race?
“We will need to manage more, but it applies to everyone. Pecco and Marco have my data and can look at it to understand where to improve, but I also have theirs and in a couple of corners they are faster than me. I will try to win or, if I can't, to get on the podium. The pace will certainly be slower, it's not possible to keep up with today's pace."
How did you manage to improve enough to put Bagnaia in difficulty?
“I usually gained on Pecco in acceleration and lost in braking, but now I'm at his level in braking, sometimes even better. Overall, I'm faster. Today when Binder was close I managed to make a difference in braking. If once we were looking for one or two tenths, now it has become a question of thousandths of a second, of details."
