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MotoGP, Martin: "Overtaking? If I didn't think about the title it would have ended differently"

"In another situation I would have closed Bastianini and if we had not crashed I would have won. However, now we have a clearer idea of the ideas of the Race Direction and if in the future I should do the same I hope there will be no consequences."  

MotoGP: Martin:

Thanks to the second place conquered today in the GP of Emilia Romagna, Jorge Martin consolidated his leadership in the championship, taking advantage of the fall of Francesco Bagnaia to bring his lead over the Piedmontese rider to 24 points. A great scenario from which to look at the next championship appointments, but that does not take away a hint of bitterness in the mouth of the Spanish rider, for having seen himself snatched the victory from Enea Bastianini with a maneuver to the limit.

"In the first laps I was fighting with Pecco and I managed to be stronger. I was very fast and had a very good pace. I knew Bastianini was coming and I tried to be smart, also because I had seen that Bagnaia had fallen. Before I read on the board that Pecco was 'out' I saw on the screens that he was in the gravel. I recognized him from the helmet - the Pramac team rider told at the end of the race - I knew Enea was behind me for three or four laps already. I was confident, I came out well from Turn 3 and closed the line so that he could not hold that line. He came in, I got the bike back up and we even touched. A lot of things go through your head at that moment. I knew I had to finish the race. I think if I had not been fighting for the world championship, there would have been a different ending. I would have closed and if we hadn't ended up on the ground, I think I would have won. But in this situation I felt the contact and went wide to finish the race."

What bothered Martinator was not so much the maneuver itself, but the fact that Race Direction decided not to take action against Bastianini.

"I think the maneuver was a bit exaggerated because it was off the track, but continuing to talk about it doesn't change anything. Now we have a clearer idea of the ideas of Race Direction, which is not always clear and constant, and if I do the same thing in the future obviously there will be no consequences. Or at least I hope so. I'm not a rider who overtakes in this way, but I respect the decision and I'm moving on ," Jorge stressed, "In the end, very little happened. If it was any other time or it was any other rider I would not have shaken his hand for a few days, but I worked a lot on my ego, congratulate him on his victory and look forward. I was lucky not to have fallen. What matters most is to have won 20 points. If I had only beaten Pecco right now we would be talking about a 9-point lead, so in the end better that way."

Why was Martin upset about this Marc Marquez-style overtaking?

"Because I lost the victory ," he explained , " My point of view is similar to Marc's: contacts are part of our sport, but if a rider goes beyond the limits of the track he has to give up a position. I don't want to talk too much about the incident because it wouldn't change anything. Enea went all-in because he still has a chance to fight for the championship, but he is not in the same situation as I am. If he did it to help Pecco? He still has a chance to win, so I don't think it makes sense. But it's his team and his decision."

Despite some disappointment, Jorge wants to try to see the glass half full and take away the positives from this weekend.

"I'm looking forward to going to Indonesia. I love that track and I want to take away the positives from Misano, which is the fact that I was very confident and improved in qualifying. I got back to my usual performance and was one of the best in terms of pace," he said, " I didn't say I wasn't happy. I am. I think I had a very good weekend. I am happy with my performance and my goal, as I said at the beginning of the season, is to keep working and keep learning. I just look at the end result today, it definitely could have been better, but let's move on."

Martin then spoke more specifically about the step forward made in the last few races.

"At the beginning of the season I had some problems that I couldn't recognize and they led me to crash at Sachsenring and Jerez, but we seem to have managed to solve them now. I had different parts than the other Ducatis before Sachsenring. I was a little bit more competitive, but I was crashing more," he explained, " Last Round I made the wrong choice and I lost points, but I don't fall as much anymore and I'm happy that I found a good basic set-up, I know my bike well and where the limit is, so I'm very focused on Indonesia and the next races to try to maintain this margin.

The classification leader concluded by expressing an opinion on the apparent problem experienced by Bagnaia: "It has never happened to me to have a bad tire that then started to work. Maybe it wouldn't have been bad if last year in Qatar it started working after 15 laps, but it didn't happen. It's racing."

Automatic Translation by DeepL

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