Jorge Martin says he is far more interested in solving his current dip in performance than the fact that he edged closer to the championship lead at Brno on Saturday.
Martin was running third among the four Aprilias in the sprint when points leader and factory team-mate Marco Bezzecchi crashed ahead of him, allowing him to close his points deficit to 15.
But as another middling weekend unfolds in terms of pure performance, Martin says he has more important things to worry about than the points gap.
“That’s the least of my worries right now,” he said in his Spanish debrief on Saturday. “Whether I’m 10, 15 or 20 points behind the leader… what really worries me is that I’m a long way off the Ducatis and a long way off victory. And for two races now, I haven’t had the pace I had at the start of the year.”
Martin improved steadily over the opening several rounds as he got to grips with the RS-GP25 and his fitness improved. This culminated in a maximum-points weekend at Le Mans in May, when he dominated the French Grand Prix meeting.
Since then, however, he has not been the man to show the way for Aprilia – a poor run that began with multiple crashes at the Catalan Grand Prix immediately after Le Mans. His woes have continued at Brno this weekend: he had to go through Q1 to secure a disappointing 10th spot on the grid.
“It’s clear that [Le Mans] was a very positive weekend. We’ve been making great progress, but I’ve always said that getting there is easier than staying there. Since Barcelona, I’ve lost that level of form, which I’m sure I’ll get back.
“There’s a difference in performance compared to other riders. There have been circuits where that difference wasn’t there [but] now I’m lagging behind a bit.
“There are plenty of rivals and plenty of contenders for the title, but I’m not interested in that. What I want is to find my rhythm on the bike, and if I do, to battle it out with Marc Marquez, Bezzecchi, Ai Ogura or whoever it may be right until the end.”
Having previously been quoted as saying the Aprilia felt like “my bike”, Martin now says he has lost the baseline setting he thought he had found.
“Perhaps it’s part of the process of getting to know the Aprilia. I feel we don’t have a baseline – at one track we start with one bike and at another with a different one.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
