Monthly Archives: November 2024

Sunday, November 12, 2017, and I should have taken a lot more notice, but I was too preoccupied with my own thoughts. Seven years ago, Jorge Martin won his first Grand Prix. Little did I realise watching the 19-year-old Spanish teenager win the final Moto3™ race of the 2017 season in Valencia, he would go on to achieve the ultimate accolade. It was my last day as a MotoGP™ commentator, and on reflection, it was Martin who gave me a true indication just what a great future lay ahead for the sport I loved.

I had got to know Jorge well in 2017 because of his collection of Tissot watches. I remember joking with him that he would soon have to open a jeweller’s shop. It was really about time that first Grand Prix victory came along, after hosting the qualifying press conferences where he was a frequent visitor. No less than nine times he arrived on Saturday afternoon with his mum to collect his watch after taking pole position. It was a massive relief when that first win finally arrived. It just opened the floodgates in 2018. He won seven more Grands Prix to capture the Moto3 World title

Three years earlier in 2014 was the first time I came across Jorge. The sixteen-year-old won the Red Bull Rookies Cup. We did not realise at the time just what a wealth of young talent was being introduced on the World stage by this brilliant series. Who will forget? Jorge won the title from Joan Mir with a certain Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth place. Mir went on to join a very elite club of riders who have won both the 125cc/Moto3 and 500cc/MotoGP World titles. Razgatlioglu brought BMW their first world title this year in a spectacular World Superbike season. Despite all this talent producing many World Champions, Jorge Martin is still the only Red Bull Rookies Cup winner to go on to become the MotoGP World Champion.

After that third place on Sunday, Jorge joined that very select group of riders who have won both those World titles. Joan Mir was the last of the five riders who have done the double in the 75-year history of Grand Prix racing. Jorge became the sixth on Sunday and just a glance at the others gives an idea of what he has achieved. Phil Read was the first to win the 125cc in 1968 and 500cc five years later in 1973. Spaniard Alex Criville was the second with the 125cc title in 1989 and the 500cc ten years later in 1999. The last two on the list will come as no great surprise. Valentino Rossi 125cc World Champion in 1997 and 500cc Champion in 2001. Marc Marquez followed his great rival with the 125cc title in 2010 and that first MotoGP title three years later in 2013.

Jorge’s amazing MotoGP career is well documented. Pole position and podium finish in just his second MotoGP race in 2021. A horrendous crash two races later in Portugal. He missed the next four Grands Prix but returned to win in Austria. Four podiums but no wins in 2022 and then pushing World Champion Pecco Bagnaia to the last grand prix of the season last year. This year 32 podium finishes with 16 apiece in Grands Prix and sprints. Finally, one more record to be smashed on Sunday. Jorge is the only rider in the modern MotoGP era to have beaten four former MotoGP World Champions on the grid to win the ultimate title in motorcycle racing.

I certainly took a lot more notice of his third place in Barcelona on Sunday than I did seven years ago. Sincere congratulations Jorge on such a spectacular season and that so-deserved world title. Good job you did not follow my advice and open that jeweller’s shop after all.

Two live images from Sepang made it all so worthwhile. Jack Miller walking down pit lane and the opening laps of that extraordinary head-to-head duel between title contenders Bagnaia and Martin. The boiled egg and toast would have to wait. Normally at the fly-away Grands Prix I will record the races and watch them later after a Sunday morning leisurely breakfast. Following the Tissot Sprint race on Saturday I knew I had to get up at 6.30 am to watch it live with a real chance of the Championship being settled. I was not disappointed.

The crash involving Jack Miller at turn two on the opening lap of the original race brought haunting memories back of a stricken Sepang 13 years ago. I felt the tension in the commentary box. Struggling to describe the build-up to the restart while worrying about the condition of Miller. They did a brilliant job and the sight of Jack walking down pit lane produced a sigh of relief that was released around the world, let alone the commentary box and paddock

It was time to concentrate on the racing. Bagnaia and Martin produced an opening four laps that defied logic and even rhyme and reason. I have never witnessed such a ferocious battle between two riders with so much at stake. They simply laid everything on the line. They seemed totally oblivious to the consequences of a mistake or crash. It was World Championship motorsport at the very highest level. At the finish in Parc Ferme, no histrionics, arguments or accusations. A shake of the hands, and a shared joke. They will be prepared to do it all over again at the Barcelona decider in two weeks’ time.

So, where exactly do they stand with one Grand Prix to go? Martin’s lead of 24 points means one thing. If he wins the Tissot Sprint on Saturday, the Prima Pramac Ducati rider will be crowned the 2024 MotoGP™ World Champion. The Spaniard has already won seven Sprint races this season and surely wants it done and dusted before the Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. Bagnaia will be desperate for the final outcome to go to the wire over a full Grand Prix distance. Already this season he has won ten Grands Prix to join a very exclusive club. In the 75-year history of the sport only Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan have won ten premier class Grands Prix in a single season. But it may not be enough.

History stacks up against the Italian. For only the second time at the final round an extra 12 points are available at the Sprint, but only three times in those 75 years has a points deficit been reversed at the final round. In 1992 Wayne Rainey reversed Mick Doohan’s slender two-point advantage at Kyalami. His third place was enough to give him his third successive title by just four points after a brave injury-ravaged Doohan finished sixth.

Valentino Rossi arrived at the final round at Valencia in 2006 with an eight-point advantage over Nicky Hayden. Rossi crashed on lap five and remounted to finish in 13th place in the race won by Troy Bayliss. Hayden’s third place was enough to bring him the title. The last time there was a reversal was in 2015 in the most controversial finale ever. Rossi had a seven-point advantage over Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo but had to start from the back of the grid after his spectacular falling out with Marquez at the penultimate round in Sepang. Fourth place was not enough for Rossi in Valencia and Lorenzo grabbed his third MotoGP™ title by five points after victory.

It’s a massive ask for Bagnaia to pull back those 24 points to win his third successive MotoGP™ title. Throwing in those extra Sprint 12 points will help and he has nothing to lose. Martin’s pit board in Sepang displayed a simple one-word message, “Focus”. I’m sure he will do exactly that in what promises to be another ferocious head-to-head battle for the ultimate prize.