Jorge Martin believes he produced one of his strongest rides of the season at Motegi, but even that was not enough to stop Marc Marquez from taking another MotoGP victory.
The Aprilia rider started the Japanese Grand Prix from pole and led the opening stages, putting up a strong fight against the reigning world champion. However, Marquez eventually found a way past at Turn 9 shortly before the halfway point and gradually pulled clear.
Martin finished second, 1.363 seconds behind Marquez, who completed a dominant weekend by securing his second victory of the Japanese Grand Prix event after also winning Saturday’s Sprint. The result marked Marquez’s sixth Grand Prix victory of the season and moved him to within just two points of Martin in the championship.
Despite missing out on the win, Martin was satisfied with his performance and felt there was little more he could have done against Marquez on Sunday.
“During the whole weekend, he had something else than me,” Martin said.
“With Marc, you cannot make any mistake either on riding or with the management of the race, so he was stronger. I did my best, I tried to push till the end. The pace was unbelievably fast, but even on one of my good days, it was impossible to beat him.”
Martin also revealed that fuel management played a role in the race. After Aprilia made another step forward with its bike on Sunday, the Spaniard had to reduce his pace at one stage to keep his fuel consumption under control, giving Marquez the opportunity he needed to make his move.
Source: AutoX
“I was able to be quite constant at the front. I had some issues with my fuel consumption, so I had to manage a bit, and at that point, he took the advantage,” Martin explained.
He continued to push after losing the lead and tried to put pressure on Marquez in the hope of forcing a mistake, but the Ducati rider proved too strong.
Although the result was not what Martin wanted, the second-place finish represented an important step for Aprilia at Motegi. The manufacturer had struggled at the circuit in previous seasons, but Martin secured its first podium there while also setting a new lap record.
“On a track where Aprilia used to struggle, finally, we got the first podium, the lap record, so I feel prepared for what’s coming,” he said.
Martin now heads to Indonesia with his championship lead reduced to just two points. Rather than focusing on the need to beat Marquez every weekend, however, the Aprilia rider said his priority will be to extract the maximum from each round.
“I feel it will be really difficult to beat him, but I feel it’s a privilege to be fighting with Marc at this stage of the championship,” Martin said.
With six rounds still remaining, the title battle now heads to Mandalika with Martin holding a slender advantage over Marquez.
