MotoGP Barcelona Solidarity Grand Prix 2024: Martin, MotoGP Champion

From Mahindra to Ducati – a champion of contrasts

Martin arrived at the World Riding and Fighting Championships with a complex motorcycle like Mahindra in the years when He partnered with his now main rival for the title, Pecco Bagnai.. When he got on a more competitive bike, he was initially beaten by Mir, but the following season he took first place. Moto3 title in 2018.

Unlike Marquez and Lorenzo, he resisted the crown intermediate category. Were two strange years at KTM for the whole teama season with a new Triumph engine, another with a new Kalex chassis, and a global pandemic in between. Thus, everything went from less to more and retained its value on the market: It was he who decided in June 2020 that his jump to MotoGP next year would be with Ducati’s satellite team.Pramac, not an Austrian brand.

Reasons to define what MotoGP is today

Since then it has become one of the best examples of what the current era of MotoGP is like: newcomers who are immediately on par with veterans (his first victory came in his rookie year, at his tenth Grand Prix and after missing four races due to a very bad crash in Portimao), satellite teams are almost as competitive as official teams And Saturday is almost as decisive as Sunday due to the importance of a good grid position and fewer and fewer overtaking opportunities in a race since the introduction of sprint racing in the World Championship in 2023, the king of this specialty).

Thus, last year, finishing third in the top category, he received his first opportunity to compete for the MotoGP title. Of course, on Ducati is the dominant motorcycle so far this decade. The situation with Bagnaia is almost symmetrically the reverse of the situation in 2024.twelve months ago he had reached the last race with a chance to become champion, but it was now, in the second, when He finally realized his dream.

The first champion driver in a satellite team since 2001.

A couple of years ago, Jorge himself was the first to make it clear that he the great goal was to get into the official Ducati team

. Factory Borgo Panigale twice refused him this place: first select instead Enea Bastianiniafter 2022, when Martin was always very critical of his bike, and a few months ago, when Mark Marquez He put himself within reach and made it clear that he would not go to Pramak if it was Martin who partnered with Banaya.

For this reason Jorge he’s going to Aprilia and for this reason was able to break a long record at the World Championships. Since 2001, the year before the MotoGP era began, no one has become world champion riding for a satellite team: then his idol Valentino Rossi was on a Honda with the Nastro Azzurro team, today he did it in Pramac.

From “Veil” to “Martinator”. From the rider who symbolized the transition from the 500 class to MotoGP, to one of the greatest exponents of the category’s latest evolution.