"It’s crazy": Jorge Martin takes MotoGP points lead with "room to improve"

Jorge Martin has taken the MotoGP points lead at Assen after finishing third, and feels he still has “room to improve”.

Martin already led the championship once before this season, after he won the Sprint at COTA. This time, though, he takes a seven-point lead into a two-week break ahead of the German MotoGP in July after Marco Bezzecchi crashed out at Assen.

Having missed the first preseason test through injury and being unsure whether he would be able to make the first round at Buriram, Martin is clearly somewhat surprised about the position he finds himself in after eight rounds.

“Really happy to be in the leadership,” Jorge Martin told the post-race press conference at Assen.

“Six months ago I didn’t know if I was able to start the season. I missed the first test and now I’m leading the championship. It’s crazy, really huge.”

Martin finished third at Assen behind the two Trackhouse Aprilias of Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez, but simply didn’t have the pace to beat the satellite RS-GP riders even though he led the early laps.

“I’m really happy about my performance today, we improved a lot from [the Sprint], I was leading for a lot of laps,” he explained.

“I knew the Trackhouse riders were coming because I was pushing but the distance was always 0.2 seconds, 0.3 seconds, so I knew Raul [Fernandez] was going to try and then I saw also Ai [Ogura] coming. 

“I was doing my own race, trying to do my best pace. I didn’t have [anything] else to fight with.”

Martin wanted to try to take second from Fernandez at the end, but identified the fast corners as his weak point compared to the Trackhouse riders.

“I was trying to be constant, to at least go a bit with them, and for sure the last few laps I thought about second position because Ai was gone but I saw Raul was struggling, but I was suffering a lot in the fast corners,” he said.

“So, I was riding quite well, quite smooth, but fast corners is an issue for me at the moment, also. 

“So, there is always room to improve, there is always something we need to focus on.

“Tomorrow, we will try to analyse well and see where we can improve for the next races.”

Although there is room to improve, Martin does feel he made progress with his feeling on the bike in the Netherlands, having lost front confidence since Barcelona.

“I’m happy because we improved a lot my feeling from yesterday to today,” he said.

“This was the most important thing for me this weekend, to try to gain more confidence with the front, more confidence with the rear. 

“For sure I am suffering more in the heat compared to the rest of the Aprilias, but I took the maximum from today. 

“We started really well and to finish on the podium for me is an amazing result.”

“A matter of speed”

Martin is only one of several riders in title contention after Assen, but of the top-five riders in the current standings only fifth-placed Marc Marquez (who is 40 points behind Martin) has also won a premier class title.

Martin, though, does not think his experience of winning in 2024 is of benefit to him at the moment.

“For sure the experience is always something, but it’s a matter of speed,” the Aprilia Racing rider said.

“If you have the speed you will fight for races, if not you will not. 

“The thing is, when we arrive in the last few races, if I have the chance, because that means we did everything right.

“If I have the chance the last three, two races, I think there [the experience] will pay a little bit, but at the moment I just want to take the most of every weekend. I try to finish always, and this weekend was one of those weekends to bring home the maximum because I wasn’t feeling the fastest, I was just trying to do the perfect race, but I wasn’t the fastest, so just bringing a fifth yesterday, a third today, it’s really good. 

“So, now focus on improving my speed.”