What we learned from Jorge Martin’s MotoGP return on Friday at Brno

The MotoGP World Championship feels like a very different place in 2025 on 18 July than it did on Sunday 13 April - the last time Jorge Martin competed in an official session this season prior to this Friday at the Czech Grand Prix.

Having already missed the first three rounds of the campaign to injuries from separate incidents, the reigning champion was nearing the end of his return weekend in Qatar when he crashed at Turn 12 and was struck from behind by VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.

The incident left Martin with numerous broken ribs and a punctured lung. It also left him with a lot of doubts in his mind about whether he could race again, which then developed into feelings of needing to change scenery.

Thus began him down the road to a bitter fallout between himself and Aprilia as he looked to activate a performance clause in his contract. On the basis that he was not in the top five of the standings after the French Grand Prix, he looked to exercise what he believed was his legal right to leave at the end of 2025.

Aprilia stood in the way of this, though, rejecting the validity of the clause because of his lack of time on the bike. Prior to the Qatar weekend, he’d done just 13 laps of pre-season testing before crashing and putting himself into recovery mode for the first time this year.

Martin wanted to extend the deadline of the performance clause to at least try the bike, but Aprilia denied this. And when his manager said publicly that Martin was “free of contract” for 2026, Aprilia threatened to drag this matter through the courts. With no quick resolution in the offing and with Dorna warning him that he will not be allowed to sign a contract for a rival while still under an agreement with Aprilia, Martin conceded defeat.

After a hard day of facing the media to give his side of the story and face scrutiny on Thursday, Martin had to switch focus on Friday morning to the main job at hand. Unlike in Qatar, Martin hasn’t come to Brno totally blind.

A private test at Misano last week - as part of a rule change Aprilia fought hard to implement for Martin’s benefit - allowed him to blow the cobwebs off and assess just how much the RS-GP has evolved since April. As it happened, he felt it had changed quite a bit - and for the better.

Crucially, too, he started Friday at Brno in a much better physical condition than he did the Qatar weekend. And after the contract fallout, there has also been a clear shift in his motivation coming to his MotoGP return.

“Yesterday night he wanted to do a short meeting with his side of the garage to be fully clear with them, to show to them his goals and to share with all the team around him that he rejoins the championship with full motivation,” team manager Paolo Bonora said. “He wants the same motivation because he trusts everybody and he wants to have the energy from the team members.”

Trust is the hardest thing to build when you have previously effectively - and so publicly - voiced a lack of it for your current team. But Aprilia has so professionally behaved throughout this entire episode that all of the smiles within the box - from team and rider - looked genuine.

At the end of a rain-hit day, Martin has surmounted one of the biggest hurdles of any MotoGP weekend by securing a direct place in Q2. In some ways, an extra 15 minutes on Saturday in Q1 may actually have been something of a bonus. But Q1 is an unforgiving session and avoiding it removes a major complication.

Lack of dry running a double-edged sword for Jorge Martin on Friday at Brno

Of all the weekends to return at, the Czech Grand Prix is a sensible one. Its absence from the calendar since 2020 and a brand-new asphalt has effectively put everyone back to zero. Jorge Martin has no MotoGP experience of Brno prior to this weekend, so he’s coming to a round where there is no Ducati knowledge to confuse him.

Heading into Saturday, despite his roughly 5000 fewer kilometres experience in 2025 compared to his rivals, Martin remains on a largely level playing field. Dry running on Friday was kept to a minimum in the final 15 minutes or so of FP1. Therefore, nobody has any idea just what the performance capability of their bike is on the new, very grippy asphalt.

Though clearly at a good physical level, the rain-interrupted across Friday will also have stopped Martin from getting too strained right at the start of the weekend. Aprilia team boss Paolo Bonora was actually pleased to see FP1 start under wet conditions because it forced Martin to ride within himself as he got back up to speed.

“To be honest, when one rider who has missed a lot of races has to rejoin this high level championship, probably a wet session is an advantage because you don’t have to fight with the bike,” Bonora noted. “Everything is smoother and, the most important thing, your competitors are not pushing at 100%. So, it seems to be much easier. For sure there is a disadvantage because you can’t push the limit and understand your physical limitations. But this is in our plan. So, don’t push, keep calm and wait until at least three races to see your potential.”

Martin completed 34 laps across both sessions on Friday. In FP1 he ended up 17th with a best lap of 1m57.128s n the drying session, which was about 2.5s off of pacesetter Marc Marquez and 1.264s adrift of Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi.

However, Martin had actually at one stage clocked a 1m56.078s, which would have put him inside the top 10. But this was scrubbed for exceeding track limits. In fact, such was his lack of experience he had seven laps cancelled for this - including five in succession.

“I missed laps because I was not consistent with my lines compared to last season,” he told TNT Sport. “But it’s a matter of time to get to that point. They took me out after four or five laps because I was always out [of track limits.”

Despite this, the feedback from Martin at the end of his day was positive overall. In the fully wet Practice, he was fifth with a best of 2m04.492s, which was 0.721s off of Marquez’s best and just 0.164s shy of Bezzecchi ahead of him in fourth after 20 laps.

Martin has done himself a huge favour in getting directly into Q2. Currently going through Q1 is a strong list of riders who, in the expected dry conditions, would make life very difficult for someone who hasn’t pushed all out for a time attack since April.

Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia fell into Q1 at the end of Practice, as did the likes of Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer, Fabio Di Giannantonio and the most recent Brno winner Brad Binder for KTM.

His lack of dry track time, though, could cause him some problems in qualifying. As his repeated lap cancellations on slicks in FP1 showed, he’s still needing to find the best lines for the Aprilia - and he hasn’t yet pushed the RS-GP to what he believes is his limit yet. That will be something he needs to watch out for.

Then there is how he will cope over sprint and grand prix distance. The Aprilia in Bezzecchi’s hands has proven to be a good bike in race trim, capable of winning. That won’t be the expectation for Martin, though the fact everyone has only half an hour on Saturday morning to try to understand the tyres brought to Brno before the sprint probably boosts his chances of a stronger result than if Friday had been conventional.

Whatever happens next, Martin has clearly hit the ground running at Brno and that in itself is a major victory for the Aprilia rider.

Rain or shine, Marc Marquez remains in top form

Away from Jorge Martin, Friday at Brno - on paper, at least - has gone to script for 2025. Runaway championship leader Marc Marquez topped both sessions, proving fast when the track was drying in FP1 and dominant in the full wet in Practice.

His last visit to Brno came in 2019, when he qualified on pole on slick tyres on a wet track by almost 2.5s and went on to win the grand prix. So, the fact the Ducati rider has been able to plug in and play straight away in Czechia isn’t really a surprise.

While there is no meaningful race pace analysis to be done due to the weather and the expected dry conditions for the rest of the weekend, Marquez’s championship rivals - and that is a term that is becoming loose in its meaning now - cracked a bit on Friday.

Alex Marquez, the Gresini rider his nearest challenger 83 points behind, crashed in the latter stages of Practice and put himself under immense pressure to bag a Q2 place. He did so with a 2m04.993s to get to ninth, though this was still 1.058s behind Marc Marquez’s best lap.

Pecco Bagnaia fared worse, as his wet struggles from Germany - where he complained of a complete lack of rear grip - persisted, leaving him only quick enough for 13th and a first Q1 appearance since Thailand.

While the true potential of the new surface (Marquez’s reckons 1m52s are possible in qualifying) is yet to be fully tested, Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez noted that he was able to get his elbow down even in the wet.

Bagnaia, 147 points back of his team-mate in the standings, is lucky the rain is due to leave Brno alone for the rest of the weekend because that performance on an ultra-grippy asphalt is a serious concern.

The lack of dry track time may yet cause some problems for Marc Marquez. He admitted after Friday’s running that the new surface has altered the balance of his GP25: “Already in FP1 I was riding fast, but not comfortably”.

That said, he may not be comfortable but he’s not exactly coming from behind either. That’s a good foundation to build on. But should he not get the bike to where he needs it to be, his substantial championship lead gives him a lot of margin to play with come the races when deciding how much he wants to push…