Data indicates Jorge Martin's bold podium ambition was destined to fall short

Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin enjoyed his best weekend yet on the factory Aprilia after finishing fourth at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix at Balaton Park was just the fourth round of the 2025 season that Jorge Martin has competed at.

And while it didn’t get off to the best of starts with him qualifying in 17th, Martin was able to score points in both races - including a season-best fourth in the grand prix.

He finished just 11.069 seconds off race winner Marc Marquez and just over 3.5 seconds from Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi in third.

In a debrief about his race with his mechanics Martin revealed one moment where he believes he lost time to close that gap to Bezzecchi.

“We’re getting closer,” he said.

“Thank you guys, it’s been a fantastic weekend. I gave everything.

“I was losing with Frankie [Morbidelli]. I went wide. If I had managed to overtake him [quicker] I don’t know if I could’ve reached Marco, probably not, but maybe a bit closer.

“Wow, that was a great race.

“I overtook everyone: Fabio [Quartararo], I overtook Pol [Espargaro], I overtook [Brad] Binder, [Luca] Marini, Morbidelli, Pecco [Bagnaia].

“I had to overtake them all on track. It was only Fermin [Aldeguer] who crashed.”

Was the podium realistic for Jorge Martin?

Without question, Jorge Martin did have pace enough to challenge for the podium last weekend at Balaton Park.

But his lacklustre qualifying left him with too much work to do in the grand prix.

Across the entire race distance of 26 laps, the pace differential between Bezzecchi - who qualified second and finished third in the grand prix - and Martin was just 0.002s per lap in favour of the former.

Martin found himself trailing Morbidelli from lap 14 of 26 and finally overhauled him on lap 22 to move into fourth.

From lap 14 to the chequered flag, Martin’s average pace was ever so slightly quicker than Bezzecchi’s: 1m38.736s for the latter versus 1m38.714s for the world champion.

Had he been able to clear Morbidelli quicker, there was pace enough there to certainly move closer to Bezzecchi. But that data suggests only by 0.286s off of the 3.581s gap that separated them at the chequered flag.

Bezzecchi’s pace did drop away in the second half of the race compared to how he started it in the lead, but that can be attributed to two things.

First, he opted for the soft rear tyre. Second-placed Pedro Acosta did the same, but the KTM was for most of the weekend faster on race pace than Bezzecchi was.

Second, once Acosta had moved through on Bezzecchi, there was no challenge from behind that warranted a bigger push from the Italian.

Had he been able to be closer, either through a better qualifying or a quicker march through the field, Martin would have had a tyre advantage over Bezzecchi having gone with the medium and could have used that to mount a late podium charge.