Sprint victory in Austin, world championship lead and then a crash on the final lap – what Jorge Martin says about this faux pas and his correct tire choice
Jorge Martin returned to the top of the MotoGP standings in the sprint race at the Circuit of The Americas in the USA and showed that last weekend’s podium finishes in Brazil were not a one-off
The Aprilia factory rider was the only rider to opt for the medium rear tire for the sprint in Austin. A choice that had already become apparent after practice, as he said on Friday that the handling was not optimal with the soft rear tire.
“Well, the soft changes the balance of the bike enormously. It feels like a completely different bike. And I can feel that it understeers all the time.” By this, Martin means that the additional grip exerts too much pressure on the front wheel (“pushing the front”).
“Yes, I think so. Sometimes I still don’t really understand the Aprilia. Whether it’s understeer or whether it’s sliding too much. So, I feel that the front doesn’t give any grip. But I still don’t really understand what I need from the bike with the Aprilia.“
The medium rear tire was therefore the right decision for Martin, because: ”I had a lot of reserve under braking throughout the race until I really needed it.” However, it did not look like victory until shortly before the end of the race.
On the seventh lap, he was overtaken by his teammate Marco Bezzecchi, but the Italian crashed one lap later in turn 11. From this point on, Martin was second, around 1.2 seconds behind Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia.
“When Marco overtook me, I knew he was a bit faster. But as soon as he overtook me, I saw that he was slowing me down. Then I said to myself: Okay, I’m faster with the medium now.“
”And when he crashed, I just saw that ‘Pecco’ was falling back a bit. Then it was time to take full risk and give it everything.” At the beginning of the last lap, Martin had caught up with last year’s winner.
He finally attacked at the end of the long back straight before turn 12. In this maneuver, the reserve that Martin had in the braking phase was crucial: “For me, it was really at the absolute limit, because the front wheel was wandering and I didn’t know if I could still stop.”
“Maybe he would have crossed or something. I saw that Marco was very strong in turn 11, but then he crashed. I was very strong in turn 1. I actually caught up too late there. Overall, the feeling and balance of the bike was always better with the medium.”
Martin crashes during the wheelie on the final lap
This was the first time Martin had won a race as an Aprilia rider. It was his first sprint win since Malaysia in autumn 2024. With his 17th sprint win, the Spaniard is now once again the sole record holder in Saturday’s races.
He only made one mistake, and that was on the final lap. Martin drove along the back straight with a wheelie. When the front wheel touched the ground again, he suddenly crashed.
“It was full risk. I knew that I would crash at some point during the wheelie, because I did a wheelie in second gear and then in third. I saw that it wasn’t going up. I could no longer control the front wheel.”
“Fourth gear, and as soon as I touched the ground, I just crashed. I apologize to the team. But today they will be happy to work. So no problem. Yesterday in the team meeting I told them to forget about winning.“
”I just wanted to get podiums and good results, build confidence, and today we are in first place. Austin was actually an important race for me, with question marks, so to speak.“
”Because I didn’t know how the bike would react on this really strange track. But we are competitive. We will be fast all season long,” says Martin optimistically about the upcoming races.
Martin takes the world championship lead: does he believe he has a chance?
Since Bezzecchi crashed, Martin has also taken over the world championship lead with a one-point advantage for the first time since winning the title with Pramac-Ducati in 2024. For Bezzecchi, it was the second major blunder this year after the crash in the Thailand sprint.
“I braked about seven to eight meters later,” said Bezzecchi, describing the decisive moment. “The rear wheel was destabilized and because of this wobble I didn’t decelerate enough, but I turned anyway and lost the front wheel.”
While Bezzecchi had to collect himself on Saturday evening after a setback, as he did in Thailand, Martin was more euphoric than at any time since his world championship win. “But yeah, well, it’s crazy,” he says about the rollercoaster ride of emotions.
“You can’t imagine how low I was last season, how disconnected from this world, from MotoGP. I really didn’t want to come back. And now I’m here. So happy, so grateful to Aprilia.“
”They are helping me enormously to get back to my level. So thank you very much! I always try to develop myself further. And we are now two years ahead, so I am better than in 2024, but everyone is better. The level is always rising, MotoGP is like that.”
Martin doesn’t want to think about a world championship opportunity this early in the season: “No, I’m not even thinking about the world championship for 24 hours. Just race by race, day by day, and then we’ll see in November whether we have a chance.”
