Martin wary of Marquez and tyre threats in Australian GP
Despite dominating the Sprint, Jorge Martin is anticipating a thrilling fight with Marc Marquez in today’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix where tyre life is the big mystery.
Perfect sunny skies have greeted riders and fans at Phillip Island, setting the scene for a thrilling 27-lap fight for victory.
If the first ever Australian GP Sprint was anything to go by, the main race will be an attritional affair after seven riders fell in the 13-lap dash.
To add further intrigue, no one knows what tyres to choose and how long they will last due to the disrupted preparation.
Only one practice was possible on Friday in mixed conditions, leaving riders and teams to effectively learn tyre choices and set-up on the fly when the track was finally dry come qualifying.
With no previous experience on the recently relaid track surface, the always daunting job of trying to make the tyres life around Phillip Island across 27 laps will be even harder this afternoon.
After being second best in qualifying and the Sprint, Marc Marquez was back on top in the short 10-minute morning warm up.
His 1:27.812 was just 0.047s clear of Francesco Bagnaia, who needs a turnaround after a tough Sprint Saturday finishing fourth.
They were the only riders in the 1m27s window this morning with Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin completing the top four.
In a promising sign Australia’s Jack Miller was the leading non Ducati in fifth for KTM.
A verdict has been handed by the FIM stewards on the scary clash between Maverick Vinales and Marco Bezzecchi with the VR46 rider hit with a long lap penalty.
However, it is Tech3’s rookie sensation Pedro Acosta that will not race at Phillip Island.
Despite no breakage, Acosta experienced left shoulder pain from his high side at Siberia and has been declared unfit to race.
Martin will be the hot favourite to win the 2024 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix as he chases a maiden success from his third successive pole at the circuit.
The championship leader could also push himself in the box seat to secure a maiden title after extending his advantage to yesterday.
Having produced qualifying laps as he blazed away from the pack, the Pramac Ducati rider felt very comfortable across the 13 lapper, but ominously believes there is more speed to find.
“It was a really good race, but there are still some things I want to improve in terms of the balance of the bike,” Martin said.
“Overall for sure it is a perfect start. I increased the gap slowly and then at the end I slowed off a bit.
“I was on my own, but the concentration was high and very happy to win.
“For me being in the 1m27-28s was not that much (pushing) but for sure if someone was coming I had something else to push.
“You need to find a balance because if you push too much or go so slow you can crash.
“It is important to be in a strong pace and the reason why I increased was to stay on the pace.
“My style here is good. It is more like Moto3 with high corner speeds which I really enjoy.”
But Martin knows Marquez will be very tough to shake off after the fast #93 could not challenge for Sprint success after a mistake at the opening corner.
“Marc for sure,” Martin replied when asked who his biggest rival was.
“I don’t know what happened in the race, I just saw (Marco) Bezzecchi behind so it was a relief because I know if Marc was behind it would have been a different story because he had the same pace as me.
“We will see what happens tomorrow. I could follow him and try to make up something at the end, we will see what happens.
“The most important thing is to be fast and do my best.”
Marquez revealed it was rider error that saw sim slip from second to eighth at Doohan Corner, but this did not stop the Gresini rider from flying back through the pack with strong speed especially coming out of turns 2 and 12.
“It was my mistake because I did not calculate well,” Marquez explained.
“Normally in the first corner we brake in a different way because usually you go in with a lot of speed, but I did not take care about that.
“Jorge braked super aggressively to disengage the bikes and when I reacted it was too late.
“To avoid the contact I went wide and that small mistake, plus the strong wind and dirty track cost me a lot of positions and the opportunity to fight for the victory. But honestly speaking Jorge was a bit faster than me.
“We managed in a good way to still not talk about the mistake and talk about second instead.”
Whilst both riders are fast, they know tyres could be the biggest threat to victory at Phillip Island.
Last year Martin took a gamble running a soft rear tyre and was on course for a crushing win, only to lose grip and slump to fifth on the final lap.
But due to the disrupted practice, riders are going into the unknown on the new surface this afternoon.
“It will be difficult for sure,” Martin said.
“We did not try the medium, just the soft (in practice/qualifying).
“In the middle of the race it started to drop so it will be difficult to understand. That’s why Ducati have good engineers to help us to prepare for the race.
“The pace is great so let’s see what we can do.”
“The thing is no one knows how the second part of the race will be,” Marquez said.
“We have not had time with bike set-up because it is always difficult to understand in limited practice and qualifying and then the sprint.
“The second half of the race will be very hard because here if you do not manage the rear tyre, it can cost a lot of seconds in the final laps.
“Here the problem is that when you have a big drop, it can cost not one tenth per lap, but one second per lap.
“We need to take care about tyre consumption and rubber missing and make a decision.”
Moto3 kicks off the action at 11.00 AEDT where Joel Kelso will be chasing a second straight home podium from seventh and Jason Roulstone lines up 13th.
In Moto2 Senna Agius leads the local charge from 13th, while unexpected rookie Harrison Voight will start his debut from 24th.
Moto2 is at 12.15 AEDT before the 2024 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix fires up at 14.00 AEDT.
Image: Gold and Goose
2024 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix Grid
2024 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
Practice 1: Fri 10.45-11.30 (Fox Sports)
Practice: Fri 15.00-16.00 (Fox Sports)
Practice 2: Sat 10.10-10.40 (Fox Sports)
Qualifying: Sat 10.50-11.30 (Fox Sports)
Sprint: Sat 15.00 13 Laps (Channel 10/Fox Sports)
Warm up: Sun 9.40-9.50 (Fox Sports)
Grand Prix: Sun 14.00 27 laps (Channel 10/Fox Sports)
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