Jorge Martin admits discussions with Ducati will take place straight after Mugello

Jorge Martin leads the MotoGP world championship by more than a grand prix and sprint win, meaning he can’t be caught this weekend at Mugello no matter what happens.

The Pramac Ducati rider has been brilliant all season as crashing from the lead in Jerez has so far been his only mistake.

Aside from COTA, Martin has been on the podium at every round, including wins in Portimao and Le Mans, and sprint wins at Qatar, Jerez and Le Mans.

Martin, who is battling against Marc Marquez to be Francesco Bagnaia’s team-mate at the factory Ducati team next season, is rumoured to be on the verge of landing that seat.

But the Spaniard did not want to get caught up in contractual discussion ahead of this weekend, saying: “The media and press are always speculating so always you have to support this information and it’s part of their job.

“My job is to ride so I will try to be really focused. As I said before, it is a really important weekend for my team and for Ducati so I will be really focused on that.

“Monday, Tuesday - we will have time to speak and let’s see what happens.”

On track, Martin is hoping to rival Bagnaia after finishing second in Catalunya to the Italian, while Mugello last season saw Bagnaia end up victorious ahead of the Pramac rider.

“It will be a really important weekend,” began Martin. “It’s my team’s home GP and also Ducati’s home GP.

“I want to improve the result from Montmelo as well. It wasn’t an easy weekend but I was able to improve from Saturday to Sunday quite a lot.

“I was really close to the victory but Pecco was superb and managed it much better than me.

“But I think I am super focused on the weekend and understand what we need.

“Last season I was second so hopefully I can close that gap to Pecco, who I think is the favourite.”