Official: Jorge Martin gets all clear for Qatar MotoGP return
World champion Jorge Martin to make long-awaited Aprilia debut after injury-hit start to MotoGP season.
Jorge Martin has been cleared to ride in this weekend’s Qatar MotoGP after passing a medical check at Lusail on Thursday.
The reigning world champion is now set to make his delayed Aprilia race debut, under the floodlights in Saturday’s Sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix, provided his healing hand and foot fractures can take the strain.
After winning last year’s title with Pramac Ducati, Martin made his RS-GP debut in a one-day test at Barcelona.
But disaster struck when winter testing resumed at Sepang in early February, with Martin highsiding twice at Turn 1 in the space of 13 laps.
Fractures to his right hand and left foot forced the Spaniard out of the remainder of pre-season testing.
Aiming for a return at the Thai season-opener, Martin then suffered even worse injuries in a Supermoto training accident, fracturing "ten bones", most notably in his left wrist and heel.
Aprilia’s star signing has been absent from the race track ever since, missing Buriram, Termas and COTA, where he was present as a spectator.
A proposal to allow injured riders to take part in a private MotoGP test to evaluate their fitness before a return came to nothing and Martin will complete his first RS-GP laps since Sepang in Friday afternoon’s opening practice.
Aprilia, now under the technical leadership of Fabiano Sterlacchini, has so far taken a best finish of 4th (Sprint) and 5th (GP) by Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura at Buriram.
Despite being disqualified from Argentina, Ogura is also the top RS-GP rider with sixth place in the world championship. Martin’s factory team-mate Marco Bezzecchi starts the Qatar weekend eighth in the standings, with three sixth-place finishes.
While Martin’s title defence is effectively over, his return massively boosts Aprilia’s hopes of salvaging a decent ranking in the teams' and constructors’ standings.
Aprilia currently sits fourth - behind KTM, Honda and runaway leaders Ducati - in the constructors' and are only eighth in the teams' standings.
Aprilia's best MotoGP constructors' ranking is third place and with Honda starting Qatar only 3 points ahead of Aprilia, second behind Ducati (unbeaten in GPs for over a year) is a realistic goal.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
