Martin endured an eventful grand prix at the Buddh International Circuit on his way to second, as his leathers opened during the race before he started to suffer from severe dehydration.
In the second half of the grand prix, Martin’s Pramac leathers had unzipped partially, but he avoided a penalty for not having his safety equipment fully secured as he quickly rectified the situation.
However, he admitted on Thursday ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix that it wasn’t until he saw himself on the big screens lining the Buddh track that he elected to fix the problem.
Martin also noted that no malfunction had occurred on his Alpinestars leathers, and that the problem was of his own making as he didn’t properly fasten up his suit prior to the race.
“We studied a bit with Alpinestars and I didn’t close it correctly,” Martin – who is just 13 points off the championship lead coming to Motegi - said about his leather suit opening.
“Eight laps, nine laps to go I started to feel like it was open. So, it started to open slowly and I tried to finish like this, because I thought maybe nobody would see it.
“But as soon as I saw on the big screen that it was opened, I just tried to close it.
“I tried on the straight, it didn’t work. So, I tried again in corner 11. I lost just one second and I was able to gain a bit on Fabio [Quartararo] after that.”
Martin says he is physically fine now after his dehydration problems in the Indian GP and expanded on how it led to his mistake on the last lap which almost lost him second to Yamaha’s Quartararo.
“For sure everything was well after the incident, let’s say, that I had in India,” he added.
“I feel strong physically, so something wrong happened there. I suffered some dehydration. It was complicated, but I’m happy everything went well.
“The doctors said to me everything was perfect and after four, five hours everything was ok.
“I was trying to rest in the straights, and I was closing my eyes a bit – which was maybe not the best solution.
“On the last lap when I opened the eyes it was too late and I realised I had to brake.
“I started to brake I was locking the front a lot and I knew I was going off.
“Then when I came back, Fabio was there and he overtook me on the outside.
“But he ran a little wide to allow me to overtake again on the outside, doing one of the best overtakes of my career. It was complicated because I didn’t enjoy the day at all.”
