MARTIN CLEARED TO RIDE AT SEPANG WITH BROKEN WRIST

Jorge Martin has been cleared to return to action at this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, but his wrist injury remains a concern. The Aprilia rider fractured his right wrist in a high-speed crash during the Phillip Island Sprint and was ruled out of the planned Australian Grand Prix, which was later cancelled because poor visibility prevented the medical helicopter from operating.

Martin was running second in a close fight with Marc Marquez when he crashed at Turn 8 on lap eight of 13, at 211km/h (131mph), then tumbled through the gravel. The impact caused a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius. Further CT scans ruled out a suspected second forearm fracture, and he avoided surgery. The crash also aggravated an old ulnar fracture, causing post-traumatic inflammation in his wrist and making a quick recovery less straightforward.

Martin accepts that he made a mistake, but rejects Marquez’s suggestion that he crashed because he was overriding the Aprilia. He said the bike had been shaking during the race, including on the warm-up lap, and that he tried to ride through it. “I was a bit more on the left and I crashed, but I don’t feel I was overriding,” he said. Martin acknowledged that his position on entry to the Hayshed was wrong: the front tyre chattered and folded, sending him down.

After several days of treatment with his medical and physiotherapy team, Martin passed Thursday’s pre-event medical examination and was cleared to take part in Friday’s first practice session. He will be assessed again after FP1, with his participation beyond that session depending on how the wrist responds. Aprilia will not push him to compete if he does not believe he can withstand the demands of the circuit. A wrist fracture of this kind would normally take four to five weeks to heal.

The scale of the challenge may be greater than the initial recovery estimate suggests. MotoGP reporter Jack Appleyard said an injury like Martin’s would typically mean a month in a cast followed by as much as three months of rehabilitation to restore movement. Martin is attempting to get back on the bike just six days after the crash. Commentator Neil Hodgson warned that the injury could end Martin’s season, arguing that the forces on a rider’s wrist under braking would be especially difficult to manage with an untreated fracture. He noted that riders who return quickly after breaking bones have sometimes had plates or pins stabilising the injury.

Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora said Martin was “a fighter”, noting that the crash had happened only six days earlier. He confirmed the rider was suffering and that the team was not asking him to force a return before he was ready. With rain possible for Friday morning, Bonora said Martin would approach the session cautiously, then undergo another medical check to decide whether he could continue for the weekend. Aprilia’s approach, he explained, was to balance a “never give up” spirit with avoiding unnecessary risk.

Martin said he felt neither entirely well nor at his worst, and described permission to try riding as the first step. He will judge his condition and decide whether to continue in the Grand Prix. “I’ll try to ride with a broken wrist, so it will definitely be very difficult and very painful,” he said. The right hand is the one he uses to brake and accelerate, and Sepang’s many right-hand corners add to the challenge. “Overall, it doesn’t look particularly good, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

He said he had completed every therapy available to arrive in the best possible condition, and had improved noticeably over the week. Still, he was not confident about racing and said the bone would need more time to heal. “I’m not really optimistic, but not too pessimistic either, because after five days I’m here and able to ride. That’s crazy.” He is concentrating on Friday rather than the title, Saturday or Sunday: “I just try to ride, then I take the next step.”

Martin said that without a championship fight he would likely spend a month at home in a cast. He is attempting a return because he remains in contention, but stressed that he first needs to understand how much the injury restricts his riding. He is 10 points behind Marquez with four rounds remaining; Marquez took the championship lead with his Australian Sprint victory.

Marquez welcomed Martin’s return and expects him to remain highly competitive. He said the medical protocols introduced after his own 2020 Jerez injury mean that if a rider is declared fit, “it means that he’s able to ride. And if he’s able to ride, he will be at a very high level because adrenaline is the best painkiller.” Marquez said it was better for the championship if Martin was on track. The protocols were revised ahead of 2022 after criticism of Marquez’s clearance to race just two days after surgery on a fractured humerus. He returned to Jerez a week after the crash but withdrew before the Andalusian GP, then underwent multiple operations on his arm over the following years.

Marquez also said the title lead had made no difference to his approach: “Zero” change in mentality, with the aim still to give 100 per cent. He said the closing rounds were a time to take risks, as he had done in Australia, and that he would assess whether he could fight both Aprilia factory riders. Reflecting on the Sprint duel, he called it “an incredible fight” and said the key was finishing with 12 points.

Sepang presents a difficult challenge beyond the injury. Ducati has won the last four Malaysian Grands Prix and all three Sepang Sprints, while Aprilia’s best result there was seventh. There is some encouragement for Aprilia in Marco Bezzecchi’s performance at the Sepang test, where he was second-fastest on the final day and the only non-Ducati rider in the top six. Thunderstorms are forecast as a risk throughout the weekend.

Martin’s longer-term recovery also matters ahead of his planned move to Yamaha in 2027. He faces a difficult balance: protect his wrist or return quickly and risk prolonging the problem while trying to keep his title hopes alive.