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Motorsport

Sport

Jorge Martin: the MotoGP champion who wanted "justice" and not luck

Jorge Martin Francesco Bagnaia MotoGP Marc Marquez Ducati Joan Mir Jorge Lorenzo KTM Aprilia Enea Bastianini

After Alex Criville (1999), Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012 and 2015), Marc Marquez (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) and Joan Mir (2020), Jorge Martin is only the fifth rider from Spain to win a premier class title.

In addition, his success this year marked the first for a rider with a satellite team since Valentino Rossi won the last 500cc title in 2001 with the Nastro Azzurro Honda team.

Having failed at his first crack on the title in 2023, when he took the fight to factory Ducati rival Francesco Bagnaia to the final race but came short by 39 points, Martin finally got to lift the trophy this year with third place finish in Sunday’s Barcelona Grand Prix.

Martin arrived in Spain with a 24-point advantage in the riders’ championship and, although Bagnaia was in dominant form all weekend, he did enough to finish 10 points clear in the final reckoning.

Ahead of the weekend, Martin had said his championship advantage was down to "the work of an entire year". He said: “There is no key to this last race, it has been the work of 19 grand prix that has brought us here. If we continue doing the same, the fair thing is to win the title.”

Martin had repeatedly used the terms 'fair' and 'justice' in the run-up to the Barcelona showdown. In Malaysia, after a weather-affected round from which he emerged with one hand already on the trophy, the journalists in the media centre wished the Spaniard good luck for the final race. "Justice, not luck - justice," was his response.

Martin is aware that luck has not been the deciding factor in this year’s title fight, even though Bagnaia ended up on the ground in up to eight grands prix or sprint races this year - something he used to his advantage with surgical accuracy to build what turned out to be an insurmountable lead in the championship. Martin was particularly strong in the sprint races, which coincidentally were Bagnaia’s weak point for much of the year.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing (Photo by: Dorna)

Born near Madrid to a family of passionate motorcycle racing fans, Martin used to visit races in Jerez as a child along with his parents. In fact, the flag he flies after his victories is the same one his parents carried when he went to enjoy Criville's triumphs at the end of the 1990s, instilling a passion for two wheels in him as a young boy.

He didn't have it easy in his early days and it wasn’t until 2012 that he managed to reach the Red Bull Rookies Cup, a breeding ground for young talents in Europe run jointly by KTM and the energy drinks giant.

After two years of trying, Martin won the title in 2014, which opened the doors to the world championship in 2015.

Racing a less-than-competitive bike with the Aspar Mahindra team for two seasons, the first with his future MotoGP rival Francesco Bagnaia, Martin’s early results in Moto3 were rather mixed.

After moving to Honda in 2017, Martin achieved his first world championship victory at the final round of the season in Valencia, which spurred up the aspirations of the young rider and paved the way for him to win the Moto3 title the following year, with seven wins.

In 2019 he moved to Moto2 with KTM, but again, the results were not consistent. He improved in his second season in the intermediate class on the arrival of Kalex bikes, scoring two victories and finishing fifth in the championship.

Clear path to Ducati

That year, 2020, was key in defining Martin's career. He had a contract with KTM that required him to move up to MotoGP with the Austrian marque. However, in that agreement, there was a clause that if KTM did not confirm his promotion to the top class before a certain date, he would be released from the contract.

Jorge Martin, Red Bull KTM Ajo (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Due to the COVID pandemic, KTM did not execute the clause in a timely manner, and Martin signed a factory contract with Ducati to race for Pramac for two years, 2021 and 2022, with the promise of moving up to the factory team in 2023.

Despite Martin putting on a decent show with one win, eight podiums and nine pole positions in his two seasons on a satellite bike, Duati broke its promise in the wake of what Enea Bastianini was able to achieve with Gresini Racing

The Italian was chosen for the factory ride along Bagnaia, and Martin had to settle for a seat at Pramac for two more years, albeit with a bigger salary.

Martin fought with Bagnaia for the title in 2023 while Bastianini’s campaign was riddled with injuries, but he lost the battle in the final round.

This year, he built an early lead in the championship over Bagnaia, but Ducati again snubbed him in favour of six-time Marc Marquez, who had impressed the Borgo Panigale marque with his performances on a year-old GP23 bike.

Martin was initially Ducati’s preferred option for 2025, but Marquez’s refusal to move to Pramac next year forced it to change its mind, leaving a disappointed Martin to cut ties with Ducati altogether and sign a new contract with Aprilia.

Martin will arrive at Aprilia, as some predicted and others feared, as the reigning world champion after defeating Bagnaia in a tense duel for the 2024 title.

This means he could race in 2025 with the number one sticker on his Aprilia RS-GP, although he insists the decision to ditch his now-famous #89 plate will be made during the winter break.