Martin toppled reigning champion and longꦓ-time title leader Francesco Bagnaia from the head of the 2023 standings with victory in Saturday’♏s Mandalika Sprint race.

It was the seventh race in a 🍸row that the Pramac rider had taken points off factory Ducati star Bagnaia and means the young Spaniard holds a seven-point advantage heading into Sunday’sꦍ grand prix, with five further rounds remaining.

“I’ve said already, and I will say again today, that if I need to bet on somebody, I bet on Jorge. But why? Because he doesn’t have any pressure,” explained six-time MotoGP champion Marqu༺ez.

“[Martin's] on a factory bike, but not in the factory team. He's not defending the title. If he wins the championship, it’s amazing. If he finishes second, it will be OK because the n❀ormal thing is that Pecco wins.

“Pecco now is suffering with what [it] is [to] defend a title☂, that sometimes it's more difficult to defend a title than to w🔜in it.”

“Martin, from what I understand, has a full factory Ducati, exactly the same bike as Pecco. But just in the Pramac team, thaওt has Ducati engineers,” Marquez added.

“So it's more dependent on🎉 defending the title or not, the pressure that you have.”

Marquez's team-mate Joan Mir (2020) and Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo (2021) are the other current riders tꦅo have a MotoGP title under their belts.

• 168澳洲幸运5官方💫开奖结果历史:Indonesian MotoGP: Latest Results
• 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Indonesian Moto2: Latest Results
• 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Indonesian Moto3: Latest Results

Marquez’s Mandalika Sprint race ended on the opening lap when he slid off moments after passing Aleix Esparga♔ro for sixth.

But even if he had stayed on, the departing Repsol Honda star insisted he didn’t have the pace to even finish in the points tꦇoday.

“One of my strong points is always the first laps and [from the] statistics it looks like it's working good, but when 🐬you are taking risks from tওhe first lap, sometimes this can happen,” he said.

“I went into Turn 11 a bit too fast. I had to overtake Aleix✤ in turn 10 and then I missed a bit the brake point. I thought that I was under control but it wasn’t. So fully my mistake.

“But already I saw in FP2, before qualifying, that our position was 9th, 10th, 11th. And looking at the pace of the 🏅Sprint race, I think even if I finished I would🥀 not score points.

"The pace was too fast for our level now.”

Riding injured? ‘It's always that line: Superhero or stupid!’

Jorge Martin was joined on the Sprint podium by injured VR46 riders Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, who are both returning from fracಌtured collarbones. In Bezzecchi’s case, just one week ago.

Marquez knows all too well the dangers of riding 🌠straight af🦩ter surgery, having re-damaged his newly plated right-arm at Jerez 2020.

“When you ไdo these kinds of things, you can be a Superhero, or in case you crash or something and you destroy it again, then there will be big trouble. So it's always that line: Superhero or stupid!

“Today they were Superheros and it was amazing the way that they rode to be on🍌 the podium. I mean of course it's not only the bike. When someone does something like Marini and Bezzecchi today, it means those riders are very fast, very good and strong.”