Jorge Martín takes another bite at the championship at the San Marino GP

Jorge Martín remained intractable in the San Marino GP and achieved his second full points of the year with an incontestable victory against his rivals for the title in Ducati. The Madrid driver led all the laps on Sunday and completed a great weekend at the home of Valentino Rossi’s sporting sons, a circuit where he arrived with many doubts given his modest track record on it. With a record pole position and victory in the short race on Saturday, Martinator underlined his great moment of form and took advantage precisely of the physical weakness of the champion Pecco Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi, the third contender for the throne, to continue cutting points on the leader of the championship.

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The defender of the crown arrived at the parc ferme broken after holding on to third place against the attacks of Dani Pedrosa, who once again dreamed of the podium in his role as a KTM guest at 37 years old. The driver from Castellar del Vallés, revered by the new generation of the grid these days and applauded as the great architect of the Mattighofen brand’s rise to the forefront in recent years in his role as luxury tester, was just one tenth behind.

Bagnaia had to attend to the media leaning on the barriers, unable to walk after the titanic effort to complete the 27 laps of a grand prix with a lot of physical exhaustion. Bruised after his chilling collision in Montmeló, the world champion saved with two third places at home this weekend, but sees how Martín approaches him to 36 points in a classification that he leads with 283. Bezzecchi, also affected in the multiple accident from the first corner at the Catalunya GP, he gritted his teeth and shaved points off his academy teammate VR46 with his second-place finish, although his gap is still bulging at 65 points.

Martín knelt before his mechanics and hard core, whom he thanked for their hard work and unconditional support on the way to finding his strongest version on the motorcycle. In his third year in the premier class, the second with official Ducati machinery, he seems to have found the necessary balance to fight for the right to wear number one on the grid. “I have everything in place and I am much stronger mentally,” explained the man from Madrid, drenched in champagne and joy. “I want to thank everyone who helps me on this path. We are dedicating many hours to improve ”, he confirmed.

Marc Márquez faces the H hour with Honda

In addition to Pedrosa’s leading role due to his brilliant wild card, Marc Márquez was the one who made the most headlines throughout the weekend. On Sunday he achieved a hopeful seventh place on the track where he celebrated his last victory more than two years ago, his best result in 11 months. Pushing the Honda to the limit, and also needing some luck with a pass from Luca Marini on the last lap, the eight-time world champion arrived at the day he has been waiting for for months.

This Monday, during the first tests with the 2024 motorcycles, the Cervera rider will seek confirmation of his brand’s reaction on the track. After dizzying in recent weeks, and fueling rumors about a possible departure for Gresini’s Ducati, the 30-year-old rider may have already decided on his immediate future. As El Periódico announced this Sunday, Márquez would choose to finally fulfill his contract and stay for another year in the team where he won his six world titles in the premier class, in the absence of official confirmation.

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