588 days later, the Martinator is back: with this Aprilia he can fight for the World Championship

In 2024 his last Sunday victory, today Martin returned to the top step of the podium at Le Mans: the pressure on Bezzecchi is mounting.

Triumph in the Sprint Race, triumph in the long race: a fantastic MotoGP weekend for Jorge Martin at Le Mans. If on Saturday he managed to take P1 with a lightning start from eighth on the grid, today he had to fight harder before getting in front of everyone. Three laps from the end came the decisive overtake on teammate Marco Bezzecchi, now just one point behind in the overall standings.

For the Spaniard, this is his first Sunday victory with Aprilia, and also the first since Mandalika in 2024: a full 588 days have passed since that triumph with the Prima Pramac Ducati. He’s put injuries behind him and found a wonderful feeling with the Aprilia RS-GP26. Next weekend is Catalunya, and he’ll try to repeat himself.

Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP, the two-time world champion could only be satisfied with his performance today: "It wasn’t an easy race. I got a good start, but then there was chaos at Turn 1 and I found myself quite far back, eighth, I think. I expected to be further up, but then little by little I set my pace and made passes. I wasn’t thinking about the win at all, not even the podium, because I could see the riders ahead were very strong. Then Pecco crashed and I managed to get past Acosta, that’s when I started thinking about the win. The overtake on Bez was tough, on the limit. He knew I was coming, so he braked even later, but I made it. I got a really strong drive out of Turn 4 to avoid getting re-passed."

Martin wisely chose not to ask too much of his tires in the first part of the race, saving enough to take the win at Le Mans: "It didn’t make sense to try to overtake everyone like a madman, there were 28 laps and I knew I had time. I tried to get closer on the brakes, but stayed calm enough to keep something for the end of the race. This choice paid off, because in the end I had a little more than Marco. I have to say that when I was behind others the feeling wasn’t great, because the bike moved around quite a bit; instead, when I passed and was in front, in clean air, I got a good feeling back."

The Spaniard confirms that the Jerez test was key to making a step forward with the feel of the Aprilia RS-GP26: "Up until the Jerez test we were kind of improvising with the setup and parts, then during the test we made a step, going back to components that suited me better. Here we tweaked the setup a bit for the Sprint, and today was the first time in two days that we didn’t touch anything, which means we’re really close to the base. I know what I’ve got between my legs, I know the bike and I understand its limit."

The Martinator is riding the way he likes, probably in his best version. He missed something in qualifying, but in the race he was incisive both Saturday and Sunday. Even if he doesn’t want to talk about the championship, he inevitably has to be considered a serious contender for the final victory.