How Marc Marquez’s MotoGP crash in Thailand saved Jorge Martin’s championship lead

Jorge Martin says he would have crashed if Marc Marquez hadn’t crashed in front of him at the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix because he could have foreseen losing the front.

The championship leader finished second in Sunday’s wet Thai Grand Prix at Buriram while title rival Francesco Bagnaia dominated to take a vital victory.

Martin led briefly in the early stages, but ran wide at turn three on lap five and fell behind Banaya and Marc Márquez.

Márquez crashed on lap 14 at turn 8 while in second and Martin had a big front scare right behind him.

Speaking after the race, Martin says he was able to escape the crash because he saw Marquez fall in front of him, and without it he would have lost the championship lead.

“I felt really good from the start, but I immediately saw that this feeling was not a warm-up feeling,” began Martin, whose championship lead had been cut to 17 points.

“I was sliding behind a lot. I even widened the gap and at that moment I saw that they had something else.

“I missed turn three and Pecco and Mark overtook me. Then I tried to stay close to them because I was thinking about the potential movement at the end of the race.

“But as soon as Mark crashed, I, like him, lost the front end. But I was able to save him.

“I went past, I managed to avoid the collision and at that moment I was able to control the distance to Jack (Miller) and Pedro (Acosta) because they were strong.”

He added: “I had a lot of moments during the race. I was always very close to collapse.

“So I was always ready to save him. I saw Mark lose the front, so I was ready to lose the front too.

“So that’s how I saved it. Without Mark in front of me, I think I would have crashed.

“So thanks to that… I feel sorry for him, of course, but thanks to the accident I was able to understand and anticipate a little bit.”

Rain before the race heightened tensions among the title contenders, with Martin noting: “I don’t want anyone to feel what I felt before the race: I think being Pecco or myself at this stage of the championship in these conditions is not really good.”

But despite Martin’s scary race and loss to Banaia, he praised his rival and felt it had been a “really good weekend” but dropped three points in the standings.

“Yeah, trust me, it was a really long race,” he said.

“The last few laps I was thinking, ‘Damn, I just want it to be dry.’

How Marc Marquez’s MotoGP crash in Thailand saved Jorge Martin’s championship lead | MotoGP

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