Pramac’s Jorge Martin does not believe Francesco Bagnaia is faster than him despite the latter dominating MotoGP’s Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Polesitter Martin lost the lead of the Spielberg race to Bagnaia on lap 2 of 28 and could only keep up with him in the first half of the race, before the Spanish rider’s front tyre began to show serious signs of wear.
It allowed the factory Ducati rider to pull away and take a comfortable 2.2s victory - and with it a five-point lead in the championship.
The result culminated another strong weekend for the two-time MotoGP world champion, who also won Saturday’s sprint, and he now leads Martin seven-to-two in the Sunday races after the first 11 grands prix of 2024.
However, Martin insists that he is still racing on an equal footing with Bagnaia and believes the Italian made the difference in the opening two laps of the Austria race.
“I think in terms of speed we are [equal], it's really difficult to see the difference,” said the Spaniard.
“You can see that yesterday in qualifying we are making the difference, Pecco and me are a step in front of the rest.
“Now as last season it's difficult to improve because he has my data, I have his data. So it's difficult to make the difference today.
“Today the difference was to lead into the first two laps, he understood it better than me.
“I was 10 laps behind, quite easy like [to follow him]. And from one lap to another, all that effort was gone because my front [tyre] said ‘we stop here’. We need to work a little bit better.
“He is not faster than me, I'm not faster than him. But we need to work a bit more on the strategy and understand how to win races.”
Martin conceded that Bagnaia is operating on a better level than him in MotoGP at the moment, but is confident that he can mount a fightback at the next round in Aragon on 30 August-1 September.
“With everything that happened during the weekend, I have to be happy,” he said. “I'm frustrated because I feel we are super strong, nothing is missing to win races, but still Pecco is doing that result.”
He added: “I'm really frustrated because I feel I had the potential to win today also. But Pecco seems to be a little bit better at the moment. I think I did a good race, I did a good start, but the moment I was in second I lost all my possibilities for the victory.
“Overall I did a good race, even in the end I was having a good pace - big difference compared to the rest. It now seems Pecco and me are a step forward.
“More points for [two] second positions in a row so hopefully I can improve that result next time.
“Even then I feel competitive and the important thing is that I give my 100% and we move to Aragon and try again.”
