Jorge Martín sent a strong message this Saturday. He wants to win the World Cup in a big way, taking risks and always going for victory. No more doing math yet and giving too much thought to mathematics. The World Championship leader increased his distance at the top of the table in the first round of the Thai GP thanks to an aggressiveness on the track that he had not shown for a long time. The Spanish driver went to rest with two more points in his favor in the relentless fight for the championship with Pecco Bagnaia, unable to keep his rival for the title at bay despite having signed a pole position record at the Buriram circuit. Although he doesn’t want to think about it, statistics say that it will be enough for him to be just behind the Italian in the remaining races to take the crown.
After finding himself far behind as soon as he started, punished by a drop in the classification and by an excess of ambition at the start, Martín knew how to lower his head and activate the comeback mode to finish second in a sprint won by Enea Bastianini. After starting third, the Pramac rider from Madrid passed through the apex of the first corner in first position, although he then opened up so much that he stepped outside the track limits and almost faced disaster with Marc Márquez on his rejoining the track. Releasing the accelerator to avoid hitting Gresini’s driver, he suddenly found himself in fifth place and blocked by a feisty Pedro Acosta.
Martín recovered despite seeing how Bagnaia gained distance and surpassed Márquez to put things in the way in the opening stages. He surpassed the rookie’s GasGas already in the second round and In the fourth he had noticed a Márquez this time unable to keep up with the pace of the black-leg Ducati. Setting fast laps, the leader of the competition closed the gap with the current world champion in a flash, but he was by no means satisfied with it. On the seventh lap, in the fast corners of the track, he ripped off the enemy’s stickers with a sidereal overtake, a real coup on the table. Here I am and here I will be until the end, ahead, he came to say: “I saw that Pecco was suffering and I took advantage, I played with my cards.”
With free air, Martín sought to get into the dirt and once again touched the limits of the motorcycle and the track. He had just stepped onto the green after passing the champion and danced again on the edge of the piano on the next lap. In the garage, Gino Borsoi, Fonsi Nieto and the rest of their team waved their hands, as if informing the stewards that they had not crossed the border established by the regulations. They narrowly avoided a long lap penalty and what would have been a difficult defeat to Bagnaia to swallow. The Italian tried to tickle the leader from that final warning, but he did not find any crack in the resolution of the candidate to dethrone him.
Although he finished third and minimized the damage, the number one appeared serious in the parc ferme. “Something was missing regarding the rhythm of the morning. We have lost two points in the fight, but now it is time to focus on tomorrow,” said the Turin native, forced to close the gap. “It was the most difficult race of the season,” said the Madrid native. “It was very hot behind the rest of the drivers. At the start I braked very hard, but I preferred to get up and avoid touching someone and losing everything. Then I tried to push really hard and recover positions. “I am very happy, because today I have fulfilled my goal, and tomorrow I hope to continue in this line,” he added.
Martín’s entourage already pointed to EL PAÍS from Australia that the intention of the driver and the team is to seek the first championship ball in Malaysia next weekand to do so they needed to beat Bagnaia in Thailand no matter what. That is his World Cup now, beating the Italian and forgetting about the rest. Beyond the bravery demonstrated in his magnificent overtake on the defender of the crown, the Spaniard had the luck of the champion on his side in the qualifying session. His great time in the first attempt saved him from sinking on the grid after the bike in front of him got away in the fifth corner of a bloody circuit in the final attempt. Fortunately, no one was able to get him off the front line.
Second place and the moral victory over his pursuer, now at 22 points in the table with 99 left at stake, give Martín a boost of confidence, making his commitment to the title clear. “I have given everything, I have not left anything. I drove as if it were any race,” he assured the DAZN microphones. “Obviously, I’m not stupid and I know that I should run thinking about what Pecco does, but thinking about numbers isn’t going to give me anything, it’s only going to take away from me. I focus on myself and take each day as a challenge. At least in these two weeks, don’t let them ask me more about mathematics,” he added.
