Martin: “I don’t have responsibility to win the title, I’m not a factory rider”

That’s not because he doesn’t intend on winning the 2023 MotoGP championship, which he does, but it’s because of his status within Ducati.

The Pramac rider is on full-factory machinery, meaning he rides the same bike as Francesco Bagnaia.

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But with no satellite team rider having won a title in the MotoGP era, Martin says he’s without pressure to do so because he does not ride for the factory Ducati team.

"My target is to win races," began Martin. "I’m not even a factory rider so it’s not on me to win the championship. I don’t have responsibility. 

"For sure, if I have the chance, as I am having now, then I will try and go for it. My day will come when I’m a factory rider. But today I am not. But it is not on me."

Martin was then pushed further about his comments during the post-race press conference, after being asked why he felt that way. 

"For sure it is up to me to win a championship and it is my dream also," added the Spaniard. "I just said that I don’t have the responsibility as a non-factory rider to do it. 

"But if I can do it I will take it. I’m not obsessed about that. I feel like my day will come and hopefully soon I am a factory rider."

Sitting next to his main title rival after securing a heroic double podium at his home round, Bagnaia gave his thoughts on Martin’s statements.

Bagnaia said: "It’s normal. He is a rider and his mentality is to win. He demonstrated something incredible this weekend that just some riders can do. 

"Doing a race weekend like this is just for the ones that want to win a championship. I think it is up to anyone to win a championship. 

"It’s up to you to push, to work hard and if anybody points the finger at you and says you have to win, they don’t win. It’s up to us I think."

Like in the sprint race, Bagnaia held off Dani Pedrosa who was mesmerising in his second wild card of the season. 

Afraid that he could be overtaken by the Spaniard late on as the gap was as little as two tenths, Bagnaia said: "It was important to be on the podium for me. Dani was pushing a lot and when I saw with six laps to go that he was 0.2s [behind] I said, ‘no, f**k!’ I was for two or three laps in the 32.7s and I was struggling a lot. 

"But I just pushed like hell to be at the front in the last laps. The pace this year was incredible."