Aprilia given important advice as Jorge Martin returns at Qatar MotoGP

Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin is set to make his Aprilia race debut this weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Spaniard has been out of action since suffering multiple fractures in a crash on the opening day of testing at Sepang, which forced him out of the rest of the pre-season.

Then he injured himself further in a training incident prior to the Thai Grand Prix, which meant he missed the first three rounds of the season.

Jorge Martin is travelling to Qatar this week to make his Aprilia debut, pending a final medical check at the circuit this Thursday.

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“Great news that he’s coming back, really,” Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren said on the latest Crash MotoGP Podcast.

“Great news to have the world champion back, the number one plate, great news for Aprilia obviously.

“[He’s] their big, star signing and they haven’t been able to race with him yet. It will be interesting to see what he can do when he steps onto this bike he’s barely ridden this year.

“It’s a very different bike now. The Aprilia has done quite well, we know Martin is quite good at Qatar, he’s had some good performances over the years right from his debut.

“That will help a little bit, but the big question mark is the fitness. What are we talking about, 10 fractures, the training accident a few days before the Thai Grand Prix.

“He hasn’t been able to get this test that they wanted to get done, but if he’s going there he’s confident he can last the whole weekend.

“We don’t know how much pain he’s going to be in, we don’t know how fast he’ll be. He’ll grit his teeth and pull out a lap, I think. The race distance will be the big question mark.

Podcast host and Crash Social Media Manager Jordan Moreland added: “It’s more mentally, I think, than physically that it will be difficult because the adrenaline runs through these riders like no other and the pain kind of disappears.

“It’s the mental aspect, but he’s very strong on that side too, I’ll give him that credit.”

While not much will be expected from Martin in terms of performance, Crash Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan also argues that Aprilia must take a very cautious approach to its rider.

“It will be important for Aprilia to temper his own expectations when he jumps on the bike,” he says.

“This is essentially a three-day test coming up for him. I don’t think it would be reasonable to be looking at him even getting through to Q2, to be honest with you.

“You can’t have 45 minutes in FP1 and then essentially 40 minutes before putting a lap when you’ve had 13 laps this year on the bike, 90 in total.

“Martin and Aprilia need to go into it step by step. And also, the really important thing here is that Aprilia need to be strong if Martin is not fit, if he’s sore, if he’s struggling, they have to intervene and say ‘look, we don’t care what you say, we don’t care what the doctor says, we’re going to bench you if you’re not fully fit because you’ve missed races already, if we miss you for another four, five, six races, we might not get you back’.

“This is the problem with these injuries: you injure something once, it becomes weaker.

“The fact he’s done the same thing again and it was a more complicated fracture - the kind of fracture that ends careers - I think Aprilia needs to be firm with Martin.

“Make sure he is sensible and make sure his expectations are in check: you just go in, put laps in, understand the bike.

“If there is pace there, good, but there’s no real need for him to do anything resembling a full-blown pole time attack lap.”