Jorge Martin: I didn’t expect to be this fast, amazing laps
Jorge Martin breaks the COTA lap record by half-a-second in Friday practice.
World championship leader Jorge Martin surprised himself with a new COTA lap record on day one of the 2024 Americas MotoGP.
The Pramac Ducati rider was saving energy for a long weekend at one of the most physical tracks on the calendar, but blasted 0.6s clear of the field after fitting new tyres in the closing stages of the afternoon hour.
Aprilia’s morning leader Maverick Vinales later cut Martin’s advantage to just 0.076s but third place Marc Marquez was 0.409s adrift of the Pramac Ducati.
“I’m feeling good,” Martin said. “For sure I didn’t expect to be this fast today because normally it’s a track that I struggle at.
“I was really smooth, trying to control my physical condition, because I want to keep some energy for Sunday. So I wasn’t pushing at 100%, but then when I did, I did some amazing laps.
“So I’m really happy. Tomorrow will be a challenging day, people are super fast and will improve. So let’s try to improve also… I feel ready.”
Martin’s closest title rival Brad Binder failed to make the top ten and will need to take part in Qualifying 1.
Franco Morbidelli completed a strong day for Pramac with seventh place as he continues to make up for lost testing time.
