In emergency rooms around the world, the fracture that Jorge Martín suffers has a clear diagnosis and solution: put a cast on his forearm and have his wrist immobilized for four to six weeks. The distal radius fracture, in this case without displacement, is one of the most common fractures treated by hospitals. With the MotoGP title at stake, the 28-year-old rider from Madrid managed to complete 15 laps of the Sepang circuit this Friday in his beast of more than 250 horsepower and 160 kilos, reaching 336 kilometers per hour six days after breaking the bone in his right wrist at Phillip Island. Although he retired early to the garages, without attacking the stopwatch, the Aprilia mainstay's intention is to compete throughout the Malaysian GP weekend.
Despite his heavy fall and injury on Saturday at the Australian GP, the cancellation of the Sunday race due to bad weather gave hope to Martín who seeks to keep the championship alive with his risky bet. Marc Márquez, current world champion and leader of the competition, leads him by just 10 points with 148 remaining to be shared. That is why he is not on the couch at home with a cast and has decided to compete with the grip that manages the gas and the front brake of his very affected and weakened Aprilia RS-GP.
On Thursday, Martín received the approval from Dr. Ángel Charte to test himself in the morning session on Friday, where he completed 13 laps, riding almost two seconds slower than his great rival for the title, who led the two training sessions of the day. “Better than I thought, but I don't have much braking power... little by little I'll get the hang of it,” he told the event's medical officer, present in his garage, after his first round on the track. It was enough to convince them and convince them that competing in their situation is possible.
In practice, in the afternoon, the Madrid native was very conservative after having a threat of falling and only completed three laps before putting an end to his day, just 12 minutes of action. He preferred to preserve his physique and give some oxygen to his bruised arm; time of rest is the best cure for his ailment. His 1:59.670 at the finish line, again 20th classified, was two and a half seconds slower than Márquez's best time of the day, a round 1:57.000 that the Ducati Catalan set after recovering from a fall at high speed without major consequences.
"When Jorge lost the front axle, he felt that it was difficult to control the motorcycle with his arm. There we all agreed, together with Dr. Charte, that the best thing was to stop and see how he feels tomorrow," acknowledged Paolo Bonora, Aprilia team leader, in statements to DAZN. “His biggest problem is braking, he can't give the maximum in a single lap,” they added from his garage. The scare as soon as he went out to ride in the afternoon sent Martín to the garage, who knew how to moderate the risks, beyond the craziness of trying to compete with such a fresh fracture in his arm.
To get the ride this Friday, Martín has been working around the clock for a week with two trusted physiotherapists. He has modified the glove, making it looser, but he was not completely immobilized, using a somewhat limiting bandage and having taken only the right amount of anti-inflammatories. His idea today was to understand how much pain he was feeling and how limiting the injury would be in the hopes of trying to score points in the races on Saturday and Sunday.
Martín's new injury once again underlines his poor record since he arrived at Aprilia last year. The Madrid native has missed 16 grand prix with the Noale factory, 40% of those that were scheduled. In total he has suffered five serious accidents since competing with the team, four of them in a dark 2025 where he spent eight days in the UCI after being run over by another motorcycle at the Qatar GP in April and suffering a traumatic pneumothorax and the fracture of more than a dozen ribs. As soon as he recovered from that blow, he fell again at the Japanese GP, where he broke his collarbone. At the end of last year he underwent surgery to fix an injury to the scaphoid in his left hand and change the plate on his right shoulder at the end of September.
The rider did not get on a MotoGP again between December 2025 and March 2026, coinciding with the start of the current campaign. "I would like our story to end in the best possible way, with him at 100% on a physical level. At Phillip Island he offered an incredible show, we saw the real Jorge," commented Massimo Rivola, head of Aprilia. “Sometimes bad things happen, and we don't have much luck with him, but we won't give up until this is over,” added the Italian executive.
“I don't know if the fracture is complete or not, but if it is, he has already done too much,” said Márquez when asked about the effort of the 2024 champion. The seven-time MotoGP champion, who is seeking his eighth title in the premier class, has plenty of experience in the dangers that a hasty return to competition can bring, and that is that his ordeal in his right arm that kept him away from the battle for the title until 2025 began when he recently tried to race. operated on the right humerus in 2020 in Jerez. “I am in a position where the championship is in my hands, so I will try to get as close as possible to 37 points,” he noted after a great Friday for his interests and those of his factory, preferring not to focus too much on his rivals.
