Jorge Martín celebrates his pole position in Qatar. /
Qatar GP
The Madrid rider added his fifth pole as a MotoGP rider, the second in Qatar, in a session in which Marc Márquez was able to grab a good third place
Equality in MotoGP generates anxiety among riders. Everyone is aware that a large part of their chances in the race are put into play during the official training sessions, also before, in the free practice sessions that lead directly to Q2 where the best twelve are at stake. Yes, the work on race pace is very important, but a good position on the grid can take away a lot of headaches on Sunday. And that leads to that anxiety in officers.
In Qatar it was seen in Marc Márquez, who in his first outing on the track grabbed Joan Mir’s wheel. It was a day in which the Suzuki had to show whether or not they had found the explosiveness that they lacked and that limited them in the fight against the clock. In the second and final race, the six-time champion caught Pecco Bagnaia, the man who had broken the Losail Circuit record in 2021. This allowed him to take a very positive third place on the grid. With Mir and Bagnaia, curiously, more delayed. The Italian ninth, giving the feeling that he is not so comfortable with how 2021 had ended. And the Majorcan eighth, after using his wake in the second start he was overtaken by Pol Espargaró, Brad Binder and, above all, Jorge Martín, the author of pole.
And it is that having a reference proved crucial for the drivers, a symptom of that need to classify well that they never tire of confessing. “The issue is that with the wind I don’t just feel completely fine,” explained Mir. «I always lose something with the wind. I have done Q2 alone and giving wheel, to Márquez and to other people. I give wheel because I’m stupid, generous, but I have to learn from these situations too. Here a wheel is quite noticeable, especially with the wind, because when you follow someone you don’t notice it. This has conditioned me one or two tenths that put me in the front row, which is where we want to be. There is no need to be discouraged. We have more speed that is clear. We are more competitive and that’s it. It is not a trauma to come out eighth either, “added the world champion in 2020.
“If you look at the second and third free practice, I would say that the two Suzukis are the strongest. In the fourth the Ducati have shown up, my teammate Pol also has a good pace, and Quartararo, even if he starts behind”, analyzed Márquez, mentioning in last place the current world champion, eleventh on the grid and who was forced to go through Q1, which hampered his chances of improving his result. Just ahead of Quartararo will be Álex Rins, another one who aimed very high and will be forced to do what he has had to do many times, come back in the first laps.
Rhythm and wheel management
“Who leads the race will be key. Those of the first line, Martín, Bastianini and I, do not have the best rhythm. Depending on who leads the rhythm, it will be one or the other, and the group will be more or less large. We must take into account how the front tire behaves when it goes to another rider’s wheel, and then we will see how the tires arrive in the last six or seven laps, which will be the key, “explained Rins himself. An analysis with which his two companions on the line of honor agreed, with Martín who already knows what it is to lead in Qatar, after he did so in the second race of 2021, in which he finished third after starting from pole , and with Bastianini in his best starting position since he has been in MotoGP. An Italian pilot accustomed to great comebacks, which is going to change his perspective.
«I am confident, but not to win. I think that, obviously, I will be one of the candidates, but I would like to have something else, especially to go more calmly in the last laps”, confessed Martín after signing his fifth pole position in MotoGP, after having played only fifteen official practices. «Compared to last year I feel much more comfortable in terms of pace. I know how to manage the wheels better and I have more experience. We will see a bit of the dynamics of the race, because here in Qatar you have to manage a lot at the beginning. And see what the others do, because everything is going to be decided in the last five or six laps, “added the man from Madrid. Those decisive laps that, according to the drivers, will decide who is the first winner of 2022, in a test that is going to leave the first clues about the season that has just started.
