Jorge Martin makes Aprilia breakthrough at Misano MotoGP test

Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin says “the big work” in adapting to the Aprilia in the Misano test is now done and feels he is around “80%” there.

Extremely limited mileage on the RS-GP this season due to lengthy injury spells has made each weekend since returning at the Czech Grand Prix extended test sessions for the Aprilia rider.

Jorge Martin spent Monday at the post-San Marino Grand Prix test working largely on ergonomics to improve his comfort on the factory Aprilia.

He found in the test that this allowed him to more “control of the bike” as well as being able to ride it with less physical effort over a longer distance.

“I did a big step in terms of position on the bike because I tried some different positions on the handlebars during Austria,” he told the official MotoGP website after ending the test ninth overall despite a crash.

“But when you are in a race weekend, it’s really tough to understand whether it’s good or not.

“It was a doubt, so we said ‘ok, we’ll take it out’. And finally here straight when I put them same as Marco, I felt a big step in terms of control of the bike, handling of the bike.

“It got less physical also, which is really important because throughout all the race it’s really important to be able to keep a good pace.

“Also some set-ups, which improved my pace quite a lot from yesterday. Everything went good.

“The most important thing, I think, was the position on the handlebars and now just we are trying some different mappings, electronics, so we can understand how to perform a bit better.

“But anyway, I feel we did already the big work. Now it’s just a matter of understand small things.”

Martin following Marco Bezzecchi’s lead with bike set-up

Martins ays his bike in terms of ergonomics is much similar to team-mate Marco Bezzecchi’s now, while on Monday he also tried a longer swingarm.

“The ergonomics, I’m now closer to his [bike] - just the handlebars are a bit further up,” he added.

“And I feel stronger on the bike. Also, we changed a bit the length of the swingarm.

“He was a bit longer and it seems it’s working better here. The next races we don’t know, because at Balaton it was much shorter and I felt super.

“So, depends on the track. But the most important thing, the base on the front, the position of the bike, feels every time better and every lap I do everything is a bit more comfortable.”

Asked how close he felt to being able to push to his limits on the Aprilia, he replied: “Maybe yesterday in the race I was 60%.

“Now we go to 75%, 80% of my limit. I can still not push the bike 100%, but we are making big steps forward.”