How Martin’s first proper day back in MotoGP went

With the paddock watching with bated breath, Jorge Martin got back on track with Aprilia during Friday’s practice sessions at Brno for the Czech Grand Prix.

The first practice session was held in drying conditions, with a dry line emerging throughout the 45-minute session. Martin appeared to be taking things easy, a sensible option considering his Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura went down during the difficult session, as he made his first appearance in an official MotoGP session since crashing in the Qatar GP and suffering serious injuries including multiple broken ribs.

“Happy to be competing again,” said Martin, having ended first practice 17th and 2.5 off the outright pace. “I miss this feeling a lot and just focused. It was a really demanding day, having all these conditions on track. We had to be always really focused. The dry line was really narrow in some corners so it was difficult to be consistent. I missed the consistency by being out for a lot of months.”

The afternoon practice session was put on hold due to heavy rain, with the pitlane opening after a 20-minute delay. Martin looked far stronger this time as the track stayed just wet enough for the riders to remain on wet tyres, unlike the morning session. After occupying the lower positions of the top 10 early on, the Spaniard shot up to fourth position with 10 minutes remaining on the clock. At the chequered flag he was classified fifth, just over seventh tenths off Marc Marquez’s session-topping time.

“In the afternoon, I felt super focused, super consistent,” explained the Aprilia rider. “Actually, it was really emotional after finishing in the top five, not because of the result itself, but because I am back. I did a great job today. I am really happy.”

While his pace was certainly impressive considering the circumstances, Martin was quizzed on whether he thought the conditions were a big factor regarding his performance, but the Spaniard remains optimistic for the remainder of the weekend.

“I don’t know, we will see tomorrow,” said Martin. “I miss that consistency with my lines because in the morning, I felt that I couldn’t make any mistakes. Sometimes I was going wide, it took me out like four or five laps.

“I think I will be six or seven [on Saturday] morning. In both conditions, I am strong, but I don’t want to expect anything from tomorrow. Try to compete with 100%, to improve, is the main target now.”

It certainly looked like the reigning MotoGP world champion was getting to grips in the conditions and working his confidence up, hence his pace in the afternoon session raised eyebrows, from both pitlane observers as well as the rider himself.

“I was surprised because it was my first time in the wet on this bike and first time in the wet since last season,” said Martin. “So I think a lot of days out and straight away as soon as I exit, I felt a lot of feedback from the tyres.

“I cannot be really optimistic when I go into the corners because I don’t know what is going to happen. So I need to start feeling the things, but as soon as I put on some more tyres, I was always in the top four, top five.”

When asked about how the handling of the bike was and if it was similar to the test he completed at Misano earlier in the month, the 27-year-old was very grateful for the test session.

Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

“Thanks to Aprilia because they pushed a lot for that test,” said Martin. “This was super important. I remember in the test there were no cameras, no people, I was able to ride really slowly and smoothly, trying to get to the bike a [comfortable] position.

“Now that we have [a comfortable] position, I feel like it’s my bike, so this is fantastic. We have a lot of work to do, but I want to be super optimistic. We still have to work on the position, but the feeling is good, the base set-up is good.”