Martin won’t gamble again in MotoGP championship fight

Jorge Martin has declared he won’t take anymore gambles in the MotoGP title fight after attempting to win the Australian GP on a soft tyre.

The Pramac rider conceded that he took a risk starting with a rear soft Michelin tyre, however, he stood by his belief that it was all part of his plan.

Martin stretched an advantage over the entire field, remaining out of touch for two thirds of the 27 laps around Phillip Island.

However, with seven laps to go the satellite Ducati rider felt the grip slipping away from him.

Martin’s lap times came tumbling down from high 1:30.8s to almost a second slower on the penultimate lap, allowing those behind, who were on medium Michelin rear tyres, to catch him.

The championship contender started the final lap still in the lead but reached the chequered flag only in fifth, and is now 27 points behind Francesco Bagnaia.

“For sure, from now on I won’t take any gambles,” said Martin.

“I think we have to go with the same tyre as the opponents. We’ll stick to that for the rest of the season.

“I think with seven [laps] to go was the moment where I saw I’m in a bit of trouble. Because I saw they were catching 0.4 at that point but I was pushing a lot.”

Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco eventually claimed the win in the rare Saturday GP using the medium tyre, highlighting the poor strategy choice.

“Now it’s really easy to understand what was the best choice but it was my plan 100 percent to go with the soft,” reiterated Martin.

The Spaniard had wanted to pull away from his competitors, as he initially did in the race, and believed the soft tyre would be his best chance given how he fared in practice.

“I was just strong on seven laps with a medium because I didn’t try a lot and maybe this was the problem,” he admitted.

“I worked out [practiced] with a soft so I thought it was going to make the race. But for sure it wasn’t the best choice.

“I thought that with a medium I wouldn’t be able to make that difference. So, I prefer to pull away and that was my strategy. But maybe I was able to do so with a medium, we will never know.”

With the schedule switched around due to dangerous winds predicted to hit Phillip Island tomorrow, Martin is eager for the Sprint race to go ahead to help him claw back points in the championship race.

“Hopefully we have a Sprint even if it snows tomorrow,” he remarked.

Riders will test conditions tomorrow in Warm Up at the new time of 09:00 local time/AEDT.