Jorge Martin sparked concerns at the Barcelona circuit after suffering yet another heavy crash during Monday’s testing. The Aprilia rider was taken to hospital after the accident, ending an extremely troubled weekend at the Catalan MotoGP round.
The 2024 world champion accumulated five crashes over the last four days in Barcelona. The sequence of incidents led Aprilia to withdraw the team from the rest of the testing session after the Spaniard’s latest fall.
Martin started the weekend just one point behind the championship lead, held by his teammate Marco Bezzecchi. The Spaniard had been showing good form on Friday until suffering a violent crash at turn 12, when he slid through the short run-off area and ended up hitting his own bike, which had already struck the barrier.
After the impact, Martin appeared visibly shaken and had difficulty staying on his feet as he returned to the pits for medical evaluation. Despite being diagnosed with a mild concussion, the rider was cleared to continue in the session and even carried out a start practice later that day.
The effects of the crash continued to show through the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, the Spaniard crashed again in both the qualifying session and the Sprint race. On Sunday’s race, Martin was in a solid second place before being struck by Raul Fernandez after the second red flag of the race.
During Monday’s testing, the Aprilia rider suffered another crash, this time in the fast Turn 7 of the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. Early assessments indicated no fractures in the left elbow and the right leg, the areas most affected, but Martin will remain hospitalized for further examinations.
The weekend in Barcelona was also marked by serious crashes involving other MotoGP riders. Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco needed to be hospitalized after separate accidents during the Catalan round.
Marquez was in great form and won the Sprint after an intense battle with Pedro Acosta, but suffered a heavy crash in Sunday’s race, following a mechanical problem on a rival bike. The Gresini rider fractured a vertebra in the neck and the clavicle. Zarco, meanwhile, was involved in a crash on the restart after the first red flag, and ended up suffering a fracture of the fibula and torn ligaments in the knee, after a strong impact involving Luca Marini and Francesco Bagnaia.
