Official: Jorge Martin to miss Buriram MotoGP test

Aprilia has officially confirmed that reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martin will ‘sit out’ the upcoming Buriram test.

That means the Spaniard, injured at Sepang last week, will go into the opening round of the season, also at Buriram, having completed just 13 laps of 2025 pre-season testing.

Martin suffered two highsides in the opening hours of the Malaysian test, with Aprilia and Michelin publicly disagreeing over the cause of the accidents.

Both occurred through Turns 1 and 2, the second sending Martin into a huge somersault before suffering fractures to his right hand and left foot.

“A bad crash for apparently no reason, with no mistake on bike side and no mistake on his side," said Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola.

That suggested a tyre issue.

"It was with the same set of tyres," Rivola told the Sepang media. "The first one was on the right. And the second one was on the left... So, I’ll leave it to you to get more info.”

Rivola said the temperature of the tyre had also been normal. 

However, Michelin's Piero Taramasso countered that while the surface temperature might have been okay, the more important inner tyre temperature of the medium compound rear - measured by special sensors - was not.

"When [Martin] went out from the box, already the tyre temperature was 15 degrees lower than normal compared to the first outing he did. So the tyre was cooler. Also when he crashed, compared to Marco [Bezzecchi, team-mate] at the same time with the same tyre it was 15 degrees lower. 

"This temperature I'm talking about is the inner layer temperature. The one from the infrared sensor on the inside. Because when Massimo spoke, he said the pressure was okay, temperature was okay.

"But this is surface temperature. Because the surface temperature you can read very quickly, but the inner layer temperature is the more important one. Because on the surface, if you have a lot of spin, you might get 160 degrees but inside the tyre there's only 100."

"The carcass temperature is the important one for the tyre. It tells you if the tyre is working or not," he added.

In Taramasso's view, that lower inner tyre temperature combined with "bad track conditions - very slippery, windy, 'cold', only 30 degrees when here normally it's 50 degrees, rain overnight" was " why the crash happened.”

But Rivola promptly rejected that conclusion:  “Regarding the crash, I would like to make it clear that our data in no way confirms the statements made by Piero Taramasso.

“I believe that the riders' safety should be the priority, and I have already suggested him to set a meeting with all the teams in order to deal constructively with what is clearly a critical situation, as evidenced by the number of injuries.”

"Jorge will sit out the Thai test"

Meanwhile, Martin returned to Europe and underwent surgery to repair the hand damage on Friday morning. The fracture to the left foot won’t require an operation.

Upon announcing that Martin had been "discharged from the Clinica Dexeus in Barcelona and will now go back to his home in Andorra" Aprilia added that "Jorge will sit out the Thai test to prepare for the Thai GP as best possible".

Test rider Lorenzo Savadori will again take over some of Martin's testing duties.

Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) were also injured on day one of the Official Sepang test and are likewise expected to miss the Buriram outing from February 12-13.

The Thai race weekend then starts with Friday practice on February 28.

Martin will go into that event with 90-laps on the RS-GP, but 77 of those came in last November’s Barcelona post-season test on an early prototype of the 2025 bike.

Team-mate Marco Bezzecchi was the top Aprilia at the Sepang test, in eighth place.

Martin's injury also means Sunday's MotoGP Season Launch event in Bangkok will go ahead without the sport's reigning champion being present.