Runaway Phillip Island sprint winner Jorge Martin has admitted it was “a relief” to discover that Marc Marquez had lost ground at the first corner and was thus unlikely to be a threat in the 13-lap race.
The Gresini Ducati rider quickly recovered from running wide at Doohan, making it back to second place on lap eight. But Pramac Ducati’s Martin was already three seconds ahead by then with more than half the race gone.
While the crowd was thus robbed of a battle between the two riders who had qualified first and second and who had been the class of the field in Australia so far, polesitter Martin certainly wasn’t complaining.
“I already knew before the race that Marc was [my toughest opponent]. I didn’t know what had happened to him but I saw Bezzecchi behind me at the beginning," he said.
“This was a relief because I knew that if Marc was behind [me] it would have been a different story. Because he was able to keep the same pace as mine.”
The fastest lap times bore out Martin’s opinion, with Marquez’s best within a tenth of his 1m27.831s mark. Only one other rider, Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati), was able to post a lap faster than 1m28s.
Martin believes a stronger showing by Marquez in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix could have its benefits.
“We will see tomorrow. If he’s that strong [again], maybe he can go into the lead and that could maybe also be good for me. Because I could follow him and try something at the end," he said.
Martin admitted to learning a lot from following Marquez at the last event in Japan. In addition, the special nature of the Phillip Island circuit – particularly the difficulty of getting heat into the front tyre – means sitting behind another rider is not as costly as it is at some other venues.
Marquez explained after the race that his problems in the first corner began with a miscalculation of Martin’s braking point.
“Jorge braked super aggressively to disengage the front device. I didn’t calculate this correctly. I almost touched him," said the six-time MotoGP champion.
“When I reacted it was too late. So I went wide. That small mistake, plus the wind, plus the dirty track out wide, cost me a lot of positions.
“It also cost me the opportunity to fight for first position, but honestly speaking Jorge was a bit faster than me.
“Let’s see if we can avoid that [first corner] mistake tomorrow and fight with him!”
Second place ahead of factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini nonetheless moved Marquez from fourth in the points standings into a tie for third with the Italian.
With the sprint victory, Martin stretched his advantage over Francesco Bagnaia at the top of the points table to 16.
