Martin, the bad weekend continues
The Catalan weekend of Jorge Martin struggles to take off. The 2024 world champion, in the Montmeló Sprint, ends up again in the gravel at turn 10 after losing the front while battling with Raul Fernandez. This is the fourth crash of a cursed weekend so far.
A real pity for Martinator, author of a typically aggressive start on an Aprilia that interprets the very first phases of the race better than anyone else. The 2024 world champion immediately jumps to fifth place and seems able to repeat the double feat of Le Mans, but the dream lasts two laps. Fortunately for him, Marco Bezzecchi does not escape but gains only one point in the standings thanks to today’s ninth place: tomorrow the challenge between the two Aprilia riders will resume, although almost certainly Alex Marquez, Pedro Acosta, and Fabio Di Giannantonio, today the best in terms of pace, will join the party.
💥 @88jorgemartin has crashed out of P6 #CatalanGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/4BC1rV78e1
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 16, 2026
Martin’s words
“I’m fine, I want to thank the team, who didn’t even eat to fix the bikes. They did an enormous job, I’m very proud,” this is his comment to Sky Sport MotoGP. “As for the crashes, they definitely affected me yesterday: I lost a lot of confidence and I was a bit afraid of crashing. Today we started with a different setup and the feeling was great: I managed to get into Q2, but after three crashes you can’t push to the limit, because you don’t have spare parts anymore. In the race the pace was fantastic, I lost some time with a few overtakes but I felt like a top-3 rider. I was a bit optimistic at turn 10, there was a bit of wind and I crashed.”
Martin goes into more detail about the mistake that costs him zero points: “I braked very similarly to the previous lap, but I held the brake a bit longer, when I released it the front slid out. That’s how it went, but these are races, the important thing is to understand this crash to try to do better tomorrow.”
