Why Martin had to give up MotoGP sprint win
MotoGP's former championship leader Jorge Martin had to surrender the Mandalika sprint win and points lead due to the risk of a tyre pressure infringement.
After an opening-corner melee removed fellow Aprilia riders Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi from the picture, and gave Martin 'free' passage into first from fifth on the grid, the Aprilia man looked to be in control and en route to a comfortable victory.
But Martin suddenly slowed and allowed title rival Marc Marquez through, in a move that looked like a bid to get some heat onto his front tyre and avoid a ruinous eight-second penalty for non-compliance.
The front tyre must be kept above the baseline pressure - around 1.8 bar, though it varies slightly from round to round - for at least 30% of the total laps in the sprint - and Martin confirmed after the race that this was indeed the reason why he had to abandon the lead.
His attempts to then strike back on Marquez came to naught, and a mistake on the penultimate lap dropped him to fourth place - turning what was set to be a five-point lead over Marquez exiting the race into a four-point deficit.
"I didn't do a great start but they were four[-wide] into first corner so it was easy for me to go into the lead," Martin recounted. "Then I tried to push and I was able to make a big gap to Marc. But then I realised that I was under the pressure [requirement]. I tried to push the front more, tried to warm it a bit more, but it wasn't into the [legal] zone.
"So I had to let Marc past, and then after that everything started to get a bit difficult. Even if I was trying to be close [to Marquez] to make a move into the last lap - that's why I made a mistake with two laps to go, and then the chances were gone."
Martin felt that he still carried a "big opportunity" into Sunday to re-assert himself in the championship race.
"For sure tomorrow Marco [Bezzecchi] and [Raul] Fernandez will be super strong - but so will I," he said, albeit perhaps unaware that Fernandez is believed to have sustained a hand injury in the Turn 1 crash.
Why was the pressure too low?
Martin and his crew chief Daniele Romagnoli may not have expected to lead the race - given he was fifth on the grid, and didn't necessarily have the pace to easily clear his fellow Aprilias.
But Martin insisted they didn't set the front tyre pressure particularly low in the expectation of running in the pack.
"It's not a thing that we normally do. We never risk with the tyre pressure, I don't know why today we were out [of the limit].
"I think here it's quite difficult with the humidity, and maybe it changed from yesterday. But honestly we didn't risk.
"Sometimes it happens. It hasn't happened to me a lot in the last few years, but today [it has]. So for sure it's something we need to check, because it's something that today maybe 0.1 [bar higher] I was able to win the same and not be in trouble."
