Martin closes in on Bagnaia in ‘perfect’ Misano weekend
MISANO ADRIATICO, Italy: Jorge Martin further closed the gap on championship leader Francesco Bagnaia after cruising to victory in Sunday’s San Marino MotoGP to complete a perfect weekend at Misano.
Spaniard Martin is now 36 points behind world champion Bagnaia after claiming the third Grand Prix win of his career, from pole position and well over a second ahead of Marco Bezzecchi.
The 25-year-old took maximum points after also winning the sprint race on Saturday, but injured Bagnaia limited the damage to his overall lead with a superb third place which delighted the home supporters at the Italian track.
Martin was on pole after also smashing the lap record by nearly half a second in qualifying on Saturday morning, but said he is not thinking about claiming his first world title for Ducati satellite team Pramac.
“To win all the points that were available is amazing. I just want to win races. I’m not a factory rider, it’s not on me to win the championship. My day will come when I’m a factory rider,” Martin told reporters.
Bagnaia and VR46 rider Bezzecchi were riding in pain after bad crashes at last weekend’s Catalunya MotoGP.
Ducati’s Bagnaia flew off his bike at high speed at Montmelo and was then run over by Brad Binder, while Bezzecchi had to deal with a left hand injury sustained in a multi-bike pile up in Spain.
But Bagnaia shone on pain killers, and after what must be one of the best rides of his career he said that he will be back to his best for the first ever India MotoGP in a fortnight.
“It would have been easy to give up, but today we managed to do a great race,” said Bagnaia.
“I think I will arrive in India in my best shape, 100 percent. Because the biggest problem in my knee is the haematoma and it’s going down. So I will not have any more problem to force on the leg.”
Bezzecchi also gained ground on Bagnaia and is now 65 points behind the leader with another display which drew the warm approval of fans who flooded onto the track after the race.
“Even if the injury is nothing crazy it’s causing me a lot of plain. I don’t know why. It was tough,” said Bezzecchi.