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Spain’s Jorge Martin has just become MotoGP’s first “independent world champion” after collecting the 2024 crown in Barcelona at the weekend.

His main rival, Italy’s defending world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), won both the Saturday sprint race and Sunday’s main race, but that simply meant he had won the Barcelona battle, but not the series war.

An historic 2024 season saw Martin claim the premier class crown, showcasing resilience, consistency, and brilliance with the Prima Pramac Ducati Racing team as he became the first independent champion since the 500cc era began.

Having taken a 24-point lead into the title-deciding weekend at the GP of Barcelona, the Spaniard held his nerve to win his first premier class title by 10 points over Bagnaia.

Martin made his debut on the world stage in 2015 with Mapfre Mahindra, moving up after taking the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.

He scored his first point in the season opener in Qatar and became a regular top 15 contender, ending his rookie year in 17th overall. The following season, the rider from Madrid took another step forward – including his first podium in the wet at Brno – but he also missed a couple of races through injury, therefore ending the season just one place further forward in 16th overall.

The 2017 season saw Martin cement his place at the front as he moved to Del Conca Gresini Moto3, beginning the year on the podium in third at Qatar. He took nine pole positions and eight further podiums that season – but it was a long wait for one to be a maiden win.

The Spaniard wrapped that up in the season finale at Valencia; his first trip to the top step setting him up perfectly for an assault on the crown the following year and seeing him take fourth overall in the standings.

2018 began perfectly as Martin won in Qatar, and it was a year that saw the Spanish star really make a name for himself on the Grand Prix scene.

Seven wins were secured while he also set a new Moto3 pole position record (11), but it was the Moto3 World Championship crown that counted most.

For the first time, Martin was a world champion, as a move to Moto2 with Red Bull KTM Ajo beckoned for 2019.

A difficult year for rider and machine followed in his rookie intermediate class season, and it wasn’t until the Japanese GP that we saw Martin return to the podium. That P3 was backed up by a P2 in Australia, as a good end-of-season run set up 2020 nicely for one of Grand Prix racing’s brightest prospects.

Three podiums in the first six races in 2020 included a debut Moto2 win in Austria.

But when sitting just eight points back from title leader Luca Marini, Martin then had to miss the San Marino and Emilia-Romagna GPs after testing positive for Covid-19, and two more zeros cost him dearly in his quest to become Moto2 world champion.

It was 2021 when the Prima Pramac Racing and Jorge Martin story began as the combination teamed up in the premier class.

And the first chapter was one to remember! Martin stuck it on pole in just his second outing and went on to claim P3 in the Doha GP to immediately raise eyebrows in MotoGP.

However, a big crash at the next race in Portimao left Martin with eight fractures and forced him to miss four races. Nevertheless, Martin banished those demons to win the Styrian GP from pole position, and he backed that maiden victory up in style the following weekend with a P3 from pole.

Capping off a rollercoaster rookie MotoGP season with a second-place finish in Valencia, 2022 promised a lot – but delivered a little less at times. It was a tougher start with Martin unable to unleash his full potential, but his sophomore season ended with four podiums – none of them wins.

After that more difficult-than-expected 2022, Martin came into 2023 hunting a much more consistent campaign. The year didn’t get off to the cleanest of starts though as two Sunday DNFs came in the first three races, before a P4 on home soil in Jerez got the ball rolling. A debut Saturday sprint race win arrived in France, and that was backed up with a double podium in Italy at Mugello.

And from there, Martin’s title challenge against Bagnaia was born. Martin went on to become the Sprint King in 2023 as Martin won seven of the last nine Saturday outings, and having won three Sunday races in the second half of the season, Martin landed in Valencia 21 points adrift of Bagnaia.

After winning the sprint race, Martin cut the gap – but Sunday saw the home hero suffer a DNF. Martin agonisingly missed out on the MotoGP title last season, but that only added fuel to the fire in his pursuit of going one better in 2024.

A sprint race win on Saturday and Sunday P3 in Qatar was a solid start to the year, and that was followed up by a first 25-point haul in Portugal. Leaving round two, Martin led the Championship and from there, he’s only lost it to Bagnaia once.

The key to Martin’s success in 2024? Consistency. Between round five and 18, Martin only missed a Sunday podium twice – once was in Germany when he crashed out of the lead with two laps to go, and once at the San Marino GP when a tyre switch gamble didn’t pay off.

After six P2 finishes in that stretch, a return to winning ways on Sunday in Indonesia – following a sprint race crash – saw Martin start to become the favourite for the title. A P2 in Japan, a sprint win and P2 in Australia and a pair of P2s in Thailand saw Martin land in Malaysia with a 17-point lead over Bagnaia.

In the Saturday sprint race, Martin held his nerve to claim a crucial 12 points as Bagnaia crashed out of P2. That meant Martin had a 29-point lead coming into Sunday’s 20-lap race and with a P2 finish, Martin made sure he held a 24-point advantage over Bagnaia ahead of the weekend’s decider.

In Barcelona, Martin qualified fourth and finished P3 in the sprint race to head into Sunday’s race with a simple objective – finish P9 or better. And that’s exactly what he did.

Despite Bagnaia’s perfect 1-1 weekend in Barcelona, Martin claimed a safe P3 in front of his home fans to become the 2024 World Champion – a year on from missing out on the crown in Valencia.

Photo courtesy Ducati

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