MotoGP Indonesia: Fall costs Jorge Martin title lead: 'It was perfect but shit happens, 1 metre mistake'

Jorge Martin’s reign at the top of the MotoGP world championship lasted just 24 hours after the young Spaniard fell from the lead in Sunday’s Indonesian Grand Prix.
Jorge Martin, MotoGP race, Indonesian MotoGP, 15 October
Jorge Martin, MotoGP race, Indonesian MotoGP, 15 October

Martin sat 7-points clear of Francesco Bagnaia heading into the race and looked set to deliver a further blow to 🌠the reigning champion, who was starting just 13th on the grid.

🔯When the red lights went out, Martin duly rocketed past his rivals from row two of the grid, then asserted a safe buffer over Maverick Vinales.

But disaster struck at mid-dis🍨tance when Martin lost control at🍎 Turn 11, sliding into a costly first DNF since COTA in April.

The Pramac Ducati rider looked stunned as he watched from trackside, while Bagnaia inflicted maximum p♉unishment by catching and p♐assing Vinales to claim a shock victory and retook the title lead.

“It was perfect,” Martin said of his race up until the fall. “A great start and then I was trying to make the 🌸gap a bit bigger. When I saw ‘2.8s’ I was really surprised. So I said ‘OK, it's time to maybe keep calm now’.”

Marꦚti♕n then revealed the cause of his crucial mistake came at the previous corner.

“I𒀰 was a bit wide in corner 10 and it was a bit dirty, so when I went into 11, I lost the front doing the same as the lap before. But shit happens.

“I was feeling super good… My mistake was to run one metre wide on the dirt and then the cornꦬer after I crashed. This was my mist🦹ake.

“I was st𝔍ill pushing. Still 14 laps to go, so I was still focused on being fast… Bu꧑t I felt I was running in a safe mode, let's say.

“I think I did an amazing race uꦐntil that point. I am the fastest at the moment, so I have to be calm and there are still 10 races to go. So still a long way.”

Martin - who had overturned Bagnaia’s once 66-point advantage o𒆙ver the previous eight races up to and including Saturday’s Sprint - now heads into next weekend’s Australian round trailing Bagnaia by 18 points.

Seeking to become the first ever saജtellite world champion of the ‘MotoGP’ era (since 2002), Martin will now revert to the role of hunter and insists he won’t dwell on the error.

“I'm happy that my speed is there and I've been fast at all the tracks,” he said. “[The mistake] is justಞ [💟a matter of] statistics. It was coming sooner or later and finally, it was here.

“So still for the remaining races, I feel confide🔯nt that I can be figh♑ting for the victory.”

Jorge
Jorge

Praise for Pecco

Despite his own disappointment, Martin was quick to credit an ‘amazing’ comeback ride from Bagnaia, who had🧸 managed jus🀅t eighth place in the Sprint.

“I didn’t know at that point🐠 [when I crashed] that he was already third. I was just trying to make my own race. Yeah, I'm impressed about his comeback but we all know that Pecco on Sundays is a bit stronger and he did an amazing job,” said Martin.

The #89 will restar✨t his pursuit of Bagnaia at Phillip Island on Friday: “I'm again the guy chasing, so now I hope he’s a bit sca꧟red again!”

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