Second ‘pole is amazing’, Martin breaks Austria lap record in the process

Jorge Martin is ready to ‘fight for the podium’ following his second ever MotoGP pole position at the Styrian Grand Prix; ‘this weekend I feel more confident’ than in Qatar.

Robert Jones

07 Aug 2021

Jorge Martin, MotoGP, Styria MotoGP 07 August 2021
© Gold and Goose

Jorge Martin will start his tenth MotoGP race from pole position after breaking the Red Bull Ring lap record.

Martin had to put a provisional pole lap that was deleted due to exceeding track limits behind him on an all-important second run - a stint that saw Fabio Quartararo incur the same fate after seemingly taking pole at the end of Q2.

Martin didn’t start the day thinking pole was possible, let alone before the weekend began, however, a strong FP4 made the Pramac rider feel like ‘one of the candidates’.

"Yeah it’s been a really good day for me in general. Normally here I am quite competitive, but you know, arriving here with the MotoGP everything is different," said Martin.

"I wasn’t expecting to be that competitive, but since the morning I felt quite competitive with the medium tyre. Then when we put the soft I was close to the top. Also in FP4 I felt confident and said ‘maybe I am one of the candidates for the pole position’.

"The first stint I pushed quite a lot but I did a lot of mistakes and even if I went to the green I did a 23.1, that wasn’t so bad.

"In the second try I did my best, I pushed to the limit and even if I had one moment and nearly crashed, I could manage to stop the bike and finishing in pole position is amazing."

When Martin achieved the same result in just his second premier class qualifying attempt in Qatar, the 23 year-old unexpectedly battled for the win after leading 17 laps before clinching a maiden MotoGP podium - a result that surprised the former Moto3 world champion.

But with another eight races under his belt since then, Martin feels much better about his podium chances at the Styrian Grand Prix.

Martin said: "In Qatar it was just my second race. I didn’t feel confident enough to battle for the race (win), not even for the podium.

"But in the end I did a really great race. This weekend I feel more confident, for sure I see it really difficult to fight for the win, but I see it possible to fight for the podium."