Jorge Martin has admitted that his chances of winning either race across the Dutch Grand Prix MotoGP weekend were “impossible” as Francesco Bagnaia dominated.
The current championship leader struggled across the opening two practices as he couldn’t get to grips with his GP24 Ducati around a tight and twisting Assen track.
Martin was able to improve as the weekend progressed to end up less than one-tenth behind Bagnaia’s pole position benchmark, but his title rival led all the race laps.
The Sunday race saw the Spaniard be awarded a three-place grid drop due to impeding a rider in qualifying, meaning he started back in the middle of the second row.
Despite making an excellent start to recover enough ground to be second in the opening corners, Martin’s showing comprised trailing Bagnaia’s Ducati bike in second.
“No, I don’t think so,” Martin said when asked if the penalty hurt his victory hopes.
“I don’t think today I had any chance, or this weekend, to be first.
“Maybe in qualifying, I was close. Maybe I could improve a little bit that lap time, but in the race it was impossible.
“Pecco was on another level. Maybe something would be different [without the penalty], maybe I would have tried a move at the beginning, I don’t know.
“But I got the penalty, so there’s no sense speaking about that.”
Martin reflected more on his weekend, stating: “Was a difficult weekend, at least on Friday and Saturday morning.
“We were able to turn it around with yesterday’s podium. The feeling wasn’t fantastic, but today I have no excuse.
“I have to congratulate Pecco, because he was riding on another level.
“I felt perfect, I felt I was riding really good, I saw the lap times and it was amazing how fast we were going. And still, he was pulling away with some tenths every lap.”
As a result, Martin’s championship lead over Bagnaia has now been whittled further to 10 points heading into Sachsenring before the annual summer break arrives.
