Jorge Martin has explained why he was the slowest Aprilia in Friday Practice for the Australian Grand Prix, saying his absence from last year’s race impacted his performance.
While Aprilia set the pace on the opening day of running at Phillip Island, with Marco Bezzecchi topping the times ahead of Raul Fernandez, Martin ended up in fifth place, 0.255s off the top spot.
More worryingly, Martin ended up more than one-tenth of a second behind his title rival Marc Marquez, who was the sole Ducati rider to mix with the Aprilias at the front.
In fact, with Trackhouse’s Ogura posting an identical time to Marquez to finish fourth, Martin was the only Aprilia rider to lap slower than the reigning world champion on Friday.
Speaking afterwards, the Spaniard explained that he lacked a reference on the RS-GP at Phillip Island, having missed last year’s race due to injury.
As such, he automatically reverted to the style he used during his days at Pramac Ducati, before having to make annual adjustments to get the best out of his current bike.
Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
“I needed to adapt to the style of the Aprilia because I'm really used to riding here with the Ducati, so I was trying to push a lot into the entry of the corners, but I was destroying the front tyres, so I had to re-adapt the style a bit,” he explained. “Towards the end, I was feeling much better, much more balanced.
“For sure, there are some details to improve, Bezzecchi is quite fast and the rest of the Aprilias. But the good thing is we have the data, we will try to match it.
“For Aprilia, it was a great day. For me it was good, honestly, better than what I expected. I think I did my lap record here, my personal record, so I'm happy.
“We are not far away, but on those two points I'm struggling a bit.”
Martin added that he needs to be less aggressive with the front of the bike and flow more into the corners, in order to get a better drive at the exit.
“It's a problem I used to have in the past; I still have it. I try to enter so fast and then I'm a bit late into the throttle,” he said. “Here, it seems like the problem was more significant, you feel it more because you need to take a lot of speed out of the corners.
“So I'm trying to brake and enter slowly, but then it's paying off at the exit.”
With five rounds remaining, Martin holds a two-point lead in the championship over Marquez, with Bezzecchi 46 points adrift in third.
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