Jorge Martin narrowly misses out on victory in Argentina: One of his “best MotoGP weekends” reveals surprising weaknesses on the Pramac-Ducati
Leading for long stretches but still not winning: Jorge Martin finished the MotoGP race at Termas de Rio Hondo in second place. The Pramac Ducati rider is not disappointed, after all, “a very good friend” won the 2022 Argentine GP with Aprilia factory rider Aleix Espargaro.
Martin led from the start until five laps before the end. But the changing of the guard was already in the offing: “I knew Aleix was coming because I saw it every lap on the screen after turn 5. I knew he was close. I could hear his bike. I knew the overtaking manoeuvre was coming soon.”
After that, Martin had nothing to counter his Spanish compatriot. The young Spaniard was fighting with blunt weapons because, according to him, he had worn out his front tyre badly with extremely hard braking manoeuvres.
THERE IT IS! ⚔️@AleixEspargaro makes his move but runs wide! 🛑#ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/CYQSMBr6iL
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 3, 2022
So Martin was left with only one tactical option in the closing stages: “I knew it would be almost impossible to overtake him again without touching him. Therefore, I just pushed hard and tried to rush him into a mistake. But he didn’t make one. He was impressive today. That’s the way it is and I’m happy for him. ”
Jorge Martin faults top speed of his Ducati
Espargaro, on the other hand, played up all his experience from 200 MotoGP races. “I played around with the electronics, with the engine brake and with the traction control to save as much rear tyre as possible for the last four laps,” the Aprilia rider revealed his tactics for the Argentine GP after the race.
Espargaro was in a much better position for the final phase than Martin. He had hardly any trumps in his hand anyway. “We had problems accelerating out of turns 3 and 4, and our top speed wasn’t good either,” the Spaniard listed the weak points of his Ducati GP22 in this race.
Your #ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 heroes 🤩
🥇 @AleixEspargaro
🥈 @88jorgemartin
🥉 @Rins42 #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/DrvQL6l4GO— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 3, 2022
A remarkable statement, after all Ducati is considered the industry leader in MotoGP when it comes to top speed. This suggests that Martin’s GP22 was extremely deficient in traction during the race. The following statement about turn 4, which leads onto the long back straight at Termas de Rio Hondo, backs this up: “I couldn’t even open the throttle and he was super fast there. ”
Pitch in the first races: No changes for Martin
For next weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, the aim is to fix this problem. At least Martin now travels to Texas with a good feeling. By finishing second, he has now also opened up his MotoGP points account for 2022. In Qatar and in Indonesia he retired on top-10 course each time.
The Pramac Ducati rider didn’t let the setbacks deter him from his course. He knew, “Already in Qatar and Indonesia I was super competitive and fast. The pace wasn’t a disaster, but then we had some problems in the races.” That’s why Martin “approached this race the same way. ”
A superb ride for @88jorgemartin into second place! 🥈
The Spaniard bags his first points of the year! 🙌#MotoGP | #ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/QNpoRc7Crw
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 3, 2022
Overall, Martin looks back on his job on the shortened Argentina weekend with high satisfaction: “I’m super happy to have finally finished a race. It’s been a bit difficult for me so far this year. But we’ve been super consistent, always close, and finally we’ve finished in a very good position.”
The young Spaniard even goes so far as to say, “I think this has been one of the best weekends of my MotoGP career so far, because I’ve been working a lot and super consistently!” So Martin has found the right way of working for himself. Let’s just hope that a good friend doesn’t snatch victory from under his nose in Austin.
