After a positive but very complicated round in India for Jorge Martín, the Spanish Prima Pramac rider reached 4th place at the end of the first day of practice in Japan.
Now just 13 points behind championship leader Francesco Bagnaia, Martín is looking to reduce that gap further, and perhaps even clinch the top spot in the table in the 14th round of the 2023 calendar.
In a debrief, Martin stated that he felt good on his bike and immediately fast, stating that he is prepared for the Sprint, without great certainty about what qualifying can be, also for any changes in the time that is felt in Motegi:
– I think so (ready for the Sprint), in terms of pace I’m already faster than last season. I’m on the pace of the winner, and that’s very important, but in terms of the attack around I was expecting to be super competitive, I did my personal best time here, but it wasn’t enough to be around Brad (Binder), so we have to analyse and better a little bit for tomorrow. Maybe it’s wet, so I don’t know if everything will change and we don’t have to adapt quickly to the conditions, but with dry ground I feel prepared for the race, maybe not for qualifying.
The Spanish rider also said that the very fast times that occurred immediately on the first day, may be related to the previous round having been held only a week ago, thus allowing Jorge Lorenzo’s record of 2015 to have been broken:
– I don’t know (why the track is so fast). Maybe have two rounds in a row because we’re very competitive right away. This morning, right on the fourth lap, I was beating last season’s record… I mean, the best race lap. So I feel like we’re already very fast. Today we beat Lorenzo’s record. I think the level is increasing a lot and we have to improve fast.