RiderTua.com – The first victory of the season for the Pramac and Jorge Martin team, candidates for the 2024 MotoGP title and aiming at a historic goal: the first satellite team whose rider is a world champion. After almost failing in the 2023 world championship, the rider from Madrid showed his best performance at Portimao and reminded Ducati that it deserves a place in the factory garage for next year. A win that gives Paolo Campinoti’s team a boost ahead of the next round in Texas, with their top rider now leading the world rankings.
Pramac : Bagnaia Could Have Avoided an Accident with Marc
During the Sprint race in Portimao, Marc Marquez overtook Jorge Martin at turn 5 on the final lap, taking second place from him. The next day Martinator clearly had the upper hand and at the same corner the former Honda rider crashed after making contact with Bagnaia. Fonsi Nieto, Rider Performance Director, commented on the weekend’s events. On Saturday Nieto put his hands on his head for fear that they would crash onto the asphalt, the World championship was still very far away, and right around the corner, with what happened last year with Bastianini, everyone watching was scared (there was a crash). “We knew that with the medium rear tire we had something more, because with the soft that Martin was on, he never felt completely comfortable,” he said.
This time Jorge Martin ran the race smartly, without overloading the tires, until he finally took the lead at the end of the second MotoGP lap. Martin didn’t have to move away for four seconds. “If they were closer, he would have pushed harder. He kept his distance without making a single mistake throughout the race. I see him as a very mature person, with a goal in mind, namely to finish the year as high as possible, and not thinking about getting involved in a war that it doesn’t make sense to get one or two points in the Sprint. The goal is to think higher. I saw the best Martin ever, the best race I’ve ever seen him.”
Fonsi Nieto then discussed an important event at the Portuguese GP: the incident between Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. There was no sanction from Race Direction, but many argued that Pecco took a big gamble and lost the first valuable point in the fight for the MotoGP title.
“I think it was a fall that could have been avoided. Pecco was a little bit off track and that’s why he made contact with Marc, this is racing and it’s very difficult to say… Pecco could have avoided it.”
