The ART rookie took his maiden victory on Sunday despite a five-second penalty after running wide while fighting DAMS driver Ayumu Iwasa for the lead on lap one.
Speaking after the race, Martins said he hadn’t considered the possibility of a penalty until his engineer suggested he built a five-second gap as he had “mega pace.”
After further questioning, the Alpine junior discovered he had been penalised for what he said was a “racing incident”, but was able to build the gap by pushing “super-hard.”
Asked for his thoughts on the battle with Iwasa, Martins said: “I had a good temperature in the tyres, I think more than Ayumu, and I did a bad start. He was in front into Turn 1 and coming into Turn 3, braked really early.
“I knew if I was going around the outside I would just get the position, and honestly I think anyone was not deserving a penalty, him or me, it was just a racing incident on the first lap.
“I didn’t have the space to stay on the track so I just went off by just a bit and then I sent it into Turn 4 where he just also squeezed me.
Source: Autosport