MotoGP India: Jorge Martin: Dehydration caused last lap scare

An exhausted Jorge Martin confirmed that dehydration during Sunday’s Indian MotoGP almost cost him second place to Fabio Quartararo on the final lap.
Jorge Martin, MotoGP race, Indian MotoGP, 24 September
Jorge Martin, MotoGP race, Indian MotoGP, 24 September

The Pramac Ducati rider moved into the runner-up position when reigning champion and ဣtitle rival Francesco Bagnaia crashed out just ahead of him with 8 laps to go.

Although race leader Marco Bezzecchi was long gone, Martin looked to have a safe buffer over Quartara🔯ro in third.

But the Spaniard’s leathers were unzipped as the final stages began. It's unclear if it was a visible sign that he was struggling wi𒐪th the intense heat but, risking a penalty, Martin zipped his leathers back up, costing him more time to the Yam🍰aha rider.

Martin was still 1.5s clear aཧs the last lap began, but ran wide at Turn 4. Quartararo briefly snatched second place before Martin flung his GP23 around the M1 into Turn 5 and held on to the finish.

Instead of stopping in parc ferme, Martin rode directly to the Pramac pits and collapsed to his knees as he was given water. The po🌃dium ceremony was delayed while he recovered and Martin later missed the post-race press 🧸conference.

“You have to trust me when I say I gave my 100%,” Martin explained in a voice message s🍰ent by his team. “I was dehydrated with 8 laps to go. So it was re♛ally difficult to finish the race, even though I was able to keep a good pace.

“Finally in the last lap I did a big mistake because of t꧅he dehydration and I went wide, so Fabio overtook me. But I could overtake back. So I’m really happy𒁃 to take this second position.”

After chipping away at Bagnaia’s title lead over the pꦐrevious four races, Marti𒊎n is well and truly back into title contention, sitting just 13 points behind the the factory Ducati star heading into next weekend’s Japanese MotoGP.

“I feel super, super happy for the team and also we recovered some points in the championship,” he said. “I think we h𒅌ave to keep the same mentality we came here to try to win, to try to be competitive all the practices and this is the way to be closing the gap.”

A satellite rider has never won the four-s🀅troke ‘MotoGP’ World Championship, which replaced 500cc in 2002.

Peter has been in the paddock for 🌱20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.

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