Jorge Martin on double victory pass: "It was close to a crash!"

Jorge Martin won the German MotoGP sprint race after a "risky" double overtake on Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller paid off at the Sachsenring.

Lisa Lewis

17 Jun 2023

Jorge Martin, MotoGP sprint race, German MotoGP, 17 June

Jorge Martin took advantage early in the MotoGP sprint race with a race-changing overtake on lap four. It was a risk which brought him a hard earned sprint win, but almost saw him off his Pramac Ducati and in the gravel.

Jorge Martin made his way to first from sixth on the grid, then pulled out all the stops to win.

It all came down to him taking the door left open as Jack Miller struggled to move his KTM cleanly through turn eleven, with Francesco Bagnaia also aware and up for an overtake.

As he made his move on the red bike, Martin saw his opportunity, and went around the duo, but the move was not without risk:

“I didn’t expect to make the move on both, I saw Pecco was going to make the move also but they were coming so fast so I said, Okay, let's try - I almost lose the front, it was quite, quite close to a crash! - I go in and manage the situation, stay on the bike and from that point I started to put my pace on the track.

"Then another big moment, on corner seven… but I could stay on the bike and managed the speed until the end”.

That second scare came at turn twelve, while there was one more wobble to come shortly after for the #89 as he fought bike, track and his rivals for the all-important advantage on track. He went on to manage that to the line and win by a gap of 2.468s after a close start.

“If you want to win the sprint race you have to take a bit of risk, if you want to make the difference, no? So I took the risk, I could have crashed also but I won, so this is important”.

Important enough to move the Spaniard to second in the overall standings after the sprint race on Saturday. Bagnaia came into the round with a 21 point lead, and that hasn’t changed - but it is now over a catching Martin instead of Marco Bezzecchi, who placed seventh.

Martin seems to have a knack for the sprint race, the German round is his fifth sprint podium in the seven races held so far and his second win.

Martin recognises that and has recently expressed that he believes he is currently in his best MotoGP form to date, which he aims to translate to podium success:

“Now my target is to win Sunday, that’s for sure, but even though I prefer to make a podium or points and not to crash, I’m not thinking about the championship at this point just trying to be fast every weekend, at the moment we are doing it”.