Fantastic victory for Jorge Martin at Ricardo Tormo Circuit, Nagashima 12th

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 and Jorge Martin took a last-gasp win at the Valencia Grand Prix, with the Spaniard making his move at the end of the final lap. It was a second victory of the campaign for Martin, who has six rostrum finishes this season – including three podiums in the last four contests. Tetsuta Nagashima made another solid race day comeback, climbing from the 23rd position to the 12th place.

Martin made a brilliant start from fifth on the grid, taking the holeshot. He set the pace on the opening laps, but his rivals prevented him from breaking away, and would pass him and establish a small gap. Martin was part of the chasing group fighting for third place midway through the contest, but on an incredible last lap he latched back onto the front-runners. A crash for the race leader established an intense three-way fight for victory, won by the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider thanks to a late pass. The Spaniard now has two wins in Moto2, and ten in his Grand Prix career.

Despite the difficulty presented by starting at the back of the grid, Nagashima held firm and maintained his 23rd place in traffic. He then set a strong pace that allowed him to gradually overtake other riders as the race progressed. Finally, the Japanese finished in 12th place, completing a fantastic 11-position fight-back and rounding off the Valencia GP in positive style.

With today’s results, Martin is 5th in the overall standings, with 150 points. Nagashima is 7th with 89. Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 now move on to the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal, where the last race of the year will be held from November 20th-22nd.

JORGE MARTIN:

“It was a tough weekend, since in practice I was not up in the top positions. However, we had been working hard for the race and that ended up being positive. We made a great start today, going from fifth to first. However, afterwards my feeling wasn’t great and my rivals were also fast. I tried to follow them and, in the final part of the contest, I was a little quicker than them. At Turn 12 I took a gamble and I got the victory. I’m very happy to have won this round, after a few difficult months. Us having achieved three podiums in the last four Grands Prix shows that we are doing a great job.”

TETSUTA NAGASHIMA:

“My feeling and my pace was not bad at all today, as I was riding similar times to the leading group. However, I’m not satisfied with the result. We have to improve in qualifying; if we do that, then we will not be that far behind the top riders. We’ll take away the positive from this weekend, and now I am already thinking about the next round in Portugal, where I hope to end the year with a good performance.”