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Jorge Martin recently reflected on a strange morning on the first day of running at the Japanese MotoGP.
Trying to continue with the momentum that he has built in the last few races, Martin comes to the race with his deficit to Francesco Bagnaia reduced to only 13 points.
The gap has come down in the last three races where Bagnaia has suffered with the injury sustained in Barcelona. To add to this, the reigning champion even revealed how he seemed to have lost his biggest advantage where he used to gain lap time, the braking. The Italian had suffered from a loss of performance in that area and it coincided with Jorge Martin's surge to the front.
After the first day of running where Bagnaia was less than a tenth away and finished P2 in the practice, Jorge Martin was a few tenths behind in P4. Talking about his first day, the Spaniard revealed how the morning was strange. Martin was happy with the long-run pace but felt some work needed to be done in qualifying as well. He told MotoGP.com:
"It was a strange morning. A lot of things happened inside my box. Maybe you don’t realise but it was a bit of a disaster even though I was first in the morning. In the afternoon I was super competitive in terms of pace but I struggled to do a time attack lap."
He added:
"I was fast but not fast enough to be close to Pecco and Brad. Even so, I was really competitive and had a good practice [session]. Hopefully tomorrow we can make another step."
Jorge Martin targets qualifying as Francesco Bagnaia shows improvement
After practice, Jorge Martin revealed that his team, Pramac Ducati, needed to work on qualifying as well. There was clearly some time lost in acceleration that could potentially be recovered. He said:
"The time attack is the place we need to improve. I feel like the rear grip on acceleration is not the best we need to understand and improve. But we are close. I’m confident and relaxed that my team will find improvements."
Meanwhile, Francesco Bagnaia was happy, as he had regained that braking prowess that seemed to desert him in the last couple of races. He said:
"I’m very happy. Finally we found the way back at the top. It has been a long time since I was fast on a Friday. I’m happy for the step in front we did in braking and finally I can push again like I was doing before. For tomorrow it is clear that we have to do another step but right now I’m quite happy."
This battle is going to get intense as the championship draws closer to the end. It will be interesting to watch who can keep their calm.
