Qatar GP, Martin: “A pity the championship is decided this way”

In football we’d say one-all but in reality the score is very much in Francesco Bagnaia’s favour, the Italian having extended his lead to 21 points over a Jorge Martin who is left frustrated with the French manufacturer. While Pecco had a defective tyre in Saturday’s Sprint, causing him to finish fifth and lose just seven points, Martin’s faulty tyre cost him double the points, the Italian’s advantage increasing to more than 20 points as a result.

Michelin in the line of fire

The French manufacturer has been accused by several riders of bringing tyres of varying performance to the track. First it was Bagnaia in the Sprint who tersely commented: “I expected this yesterday too, but there’s nothing we can do”. As if resigned to the fact races will be conditioned by the tyres. Jorge Martin came down harder in the post-race interviews: “It’s a shame a championship gets decided in this way. I don’t want to say that without this I’d have won, or whether Pecco would have won anyway, but it’s very difficult now. Making up 5, 6, 7 points is not the same as having to make up 21. And it coming down to a defective tyre, after a year of battling. I think I deserve it as much as Pecco, but it’s very tough now”.

This latest episode puts Michelin back in the line of fire following the numerous tyre pressure warnings handed out to riders at the last race. Franco Morbidelli also complained about the performance of his tyre compared to Saturday. Jorge spoke to Sky about his rear tyre: ”It didn’t work, there wasn’t much I could do, you could see from the start. I was the only one spinning. I tried to stay calm for a few laps but when I tried to push again I had no grip, as if the tyre had already done 40 laps. I think it’s a pity that it’s decided like this. Congratulations to Fabio, Pecco and Luca of course, but I don’t feel they beat me on track.”