Jorge Martin explains rare Aprilia weakness after Balaton MotoGP Sprint
Jorge Martin says his Aprilia RS-GP excels with downforce, but is losing out in Balaton Park's slow sections.
Jorge Martin believes Balaton Park's stop-go layout has highlighted a rare weakness in the 2026 Aprilia RS-GP package.
On a day when Marc Marquez tied Martin’s record of 18 Sprint wins, the 2024 champion could only rescue sixth place at Balaton Park.
Starting eighth at the notoriously hard to pass circuit, Martin’s race became more complicated when he straight-lined a chicane while trying to make an early pass on Diogo Moreira.
The Spaniard eventually got the better of the Honda rider on lap 5, but could improve no further after a further mistake at Turn 15.
“I started in the middle of the pack and didn’t really know where to go in the first corner,” Martin said. “This was an issue because I lost some positions.
“I was able to overtake some riders quite fast but when I arrived to Diogo he braked much later than I expected. I was already in, so I went for it and had to take the shortcut.
“This wasn’t good for my race because I had to lose one second and lost the train.
“Then I was catching the group but I went wide again in corner 15.
“This is the consequence of not really having a good feeling. The rear I not bad but I have good grip on the front.”
Team-mate Marco Bezzecchi finished as the top Aprilia rider in third but was unable to trouble the race-winning Ducati of Marc Marquez or runner-up KTM of Pedro Acosta.
Martin explained that the slow stop-go corners don’t allow Aprilia to exploit its aerodynamic advantage.
“It seems like when we release the brake, we lose a bit the line. I think with less downforce on the slow corners, we struggle to turn,” he said.
“But then in the second sector, with a lot of downforce, we are super-competitive.
“So we are super good in terms of aerodynamics, but as soon as we lose the downforce, we struggle.
“This is a bit the issue.
"We need to make the tyres work a bit more, but usually from Saturday to Sunday we make a step and I hope we will for tomorrow.”
Martin is now 20-points behind Martin heading into Sunday’s grand prix.
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