“Leading the championship for the first time, and doing it at home, has been very special. But that doesn’t change the fact that the race wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.” That was Pepe Martí’s response to AS after finishing ninth in the Madrid E-Prix at Jarama. It perfectly captures how the Spanish driver felt following what was arguably one of the most emotional moments of his career—but also one of his most frustrating.
Why the disappointment? “It wasn’t my best race. I think we could have aimed much higher. It’s annoying because I felt really good at the end. We were competitive, and even when I was leading, I still had a good energy advantage over the others,” the Cupra Kiro driver told the media. The trouble started as soon as the lights went out: “For someone who usually gets good starts, it was the complete opposite.” Instead of gaining positions, he kept losing them, dropping from 12th to 16th. “I made decisions, but none of them worked. I ended up on the wrong side a couple of times, got pushed off, ran through the dirty part of the track… I went backwards until I took Attack Mode. It was like the coin kept landing on the wrong side. I could have done a better job, and there’s a bit of frustration.”
Opting to attack early, among the first to do so, was “a reaction to seeing Drugovich push forward quickly. He got to the lead, and we were behind, so we followed the same line. It helped me regain some confidence, but I proposed to the team not to lead or set the pace in order to save energy. Still, I think most of the decisions were correct,” Martí explained.
Even though he heard the crowd roar as he led for about four laps before his Pit Boost, he felt he left something on the table. “I felt very supported, but I would have liked to spend less time with the media and more with the fans. I’ve never been so busy in my life. It was my first time as part of a main event, and on Friday I was really short on time—I noticed it in Free Practice 1. But Madrid delivered 100%.”
Still, he didn’t want to focus only on the negatives. “Given how annoyed I am after finishing ninth, there is a positive side. If in a race like this, where I’m not happy with 80% of the things, the day when the opposite happens, we’ll be fighting for much more. Hopefully we can aim for the top five,” Martí said. He also took away a memorable moment with King Felipe VI: “He wished me luck, and I was a bit in shock. It was an honor and a privilege.”