It’s over, Jorge Martín is the new MotoGP world champion. The Madrid native has not failed and with third place in the final race he becomes the fifth Spaniard to reign in the top category. Pecco Bagnaia also won the long race, just like the Sprint, but it didn’t help him and Jorge is the champion with ten points of advantage in the general classification, which says everything about the equality of the fight between the two this season.
Jorge was able to handle the responsibility of not losing everything on the last day, when he had it in his hands. On Saturday, in the Sprint, he added seven of the fourteen points he needed, and this Sunday he was placed very early in third place and no one has moved him from there. Marc Márquez went forward with Pecco, and Martín stayed in no man’s land, with his friend Pol Espargaró behind, who even acted as his squire when Bastianini threatened another battle like the one on Saturday.
“Being champion sounds great to me, I’m in shock, in the last laps I couldn’t even drive, I started crying and it was all very emotional. It’s been a long road, with many injuries, falls… but we are here and Now we have to enjoy,” said the man from Madrid as soon as he returned from a spectacular celebration based on his nickname: Martinator. He appeared with a Terminator mask and said goodbye, baby, to Ducati, where he is leaving now and taking number one to Aprilia. This Martín, now world champion, put on a gold helmet and went to the parc ferme to hug his family and his entire team, with whom he has suffered in recent weeks when the goal was so close.
Martín wins his first MotoGP title after his runner-up finish last year and the Moto3 crown in 2018. It was the first time he reached the top and then, as now, he remembered the long road he had come since he was a child. from San Sebastián de los Reyes with the dream of being a MotoGP rider. A boy who was pushed every day Angel and Susana, his parents, who were in Sepang in 2018, and who were in Barcelona this Sunday, as always by their son’s side since he started riding a motorcycle.
That boy wanted to achieve a dream that was always difficult, but a little more so if there was not enough money at home and he lived in Madrid, a place without the biker tradition of Catalonia or nearby circuits where he could train. That’s why the tears after each title of this boy, who as a child ate sandwiches on the circuits between runs on the minibike. Now, in the elite, he has pressure, like the one he felt this weekend, although he recognizes that the real responsibility is what he had when he was little, when his parents were out of work and he had to pay to be able to continue running. As has happened to many other pilots, the typical ultimatum was close: if the results do not come, we will have to quit.
He arrived at the World Championship as champion of the Rookies Cup and was crowned in Moto3 less than a year after winning his first race. Glory in MotoGP comes to him in 2024, after the runner-up finish in 2023 in which he fell somewhat short and that character of a powder keg, very nervous and with little ability to concentrate, took its toll. Now he is a mature driver, who has known how to win races and also be second and score many points when victory was not possible.
