Jorge Martin in “safe mode” at Valencia MotoGP: “If I get injured again...”

Jorge Martin was riding in safe mode during his return from injury in Friday practice for the Valencia MotoGP season finale.

Before practice, the only motorcycle the outgoing world champion had ridden since breaking his collarbone at Motegi in September was a paddock scooter.

Still only at “60-70%” after his fourth set of injuries this season, the Aprilia rider emphasised that he can’t afford to suffer any more damage this weekend.

As such, he resisted the temptation to push for the normal end-of-session time attack and is simply focused on lapping within the 107% time needed to start Sunday’s grand prix.

Martin will then need to serve a double long lap penalty - for causing the Motegi Sprint accident in which he was injured - before turning a page with Tuesday's official test on the 2026 Aprilia.

“I enjoyed it,” said Martin, who was classified 22nd but only 1.164s behind Friday leader Pedro Acosta.

“The first motorbike I touched for seven weeks was the scooter in the paddock yesterday, so to be back on a MotoGP bike is not easy!”

The most difficult part had been “to not push, because I actually felt super good today on the bike.

“It's a different philosophy of the weekend, trying to take it as a test is not easy, because when you are with other riders and you have all the timesheets on the screen, you want to push more.

“But it's really important to understand that my condition is bad and it's really important to not crash.”

How bad?

“Maybe I'm 60% of my full potential, or 70%. The thing is that if I crash, then it will be a really big problem for the future. I think if I get injured again, then my body won't support it. This is what my doctors tell me.

“So I have to be really easy and really smooth, and this is what I did. As soon as I saw I was pushing a bit more than I have to, I just went to the box, rested a bit and then went back again.”

“If I push to try to go into Q2 and crash, then it's a real disaster,” he added. “So that's why I need to be calm, know my targets. I don't compare to an of the other guys, I just look into my side of the box, what we need to be better, and that's it.”

Rather than focussing solely on the gap to the front, Martin revealed he has been checking the likely 107% time needed to qualify for the races.

“Yesterday I was looking at the 107% to understand if I was able to qualify for the race, and today I am five tenths maybe in terms of pace from the first one

“So I am not that far. I didn't even make a time attack at the end, I was just trying to make laps, and this is the most important thing.

“Tuesday is even more important than to be here today… I cannot [guarantee] that I won't crash, because this is impossible, but for sure I don't take any risks to put me in that situation.”

Should Martin complete this weekend without incident, it will be only his seventh full MotoGP event of the 22-round season.

Team-mate Marco Bezzecchi was second fastest to KTM’s Pedro Acosta