Martin’s light grasp on crown
Jorge Martin has put one injured hand on the 2018 Moto3 title, making the most of others’ misfortune in Sunday’s Thai Grand Prix despite suffering a bizarre injury. The Gresini Honda rider was hurt during a routine massage ahead of the weekend, trapping a nerve in his left arm and struggling to use his hand for the rest of the weekend. After qualifying a lowly 13th the 20 year-old Spaniard picked his way through in the race’s early stages to limit the damage to championship rival, Marco Bezzecchi. He was aided by a heavily modified Alpinestars glove with elastic cords to help open his hand to use the clutch (see pic). But while he was able to get into a decent position for the final lap,
‘He was aided by a heavily modified glove to use the clutch’
he was gifted big points when a last corner lunge from Enea Bastianini left Bezzecchi in the gravel. Martin secured fourth, extending his lead to 26 points over the Italian.
He told MCN: “In the middle of the race I was struggling, until the others’ tyres went down and I was able to improve. I was thinking about retiring at one point until I saw a few crashes in front, but for sure without having the glove to help me use the clutch I wouldn’t have been able to finish.” It was his team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio who stood on the top step of the podium. He won an epic scrap against Lorenzo Dalla Porta and podium debutant Dennis Foggia, with the VR46 Academy rider impressively coming through from 25th on the grid.