Aprilia boss praises “remarkable” Jorge Martin, hopes now on MotoGP’s secondary titles
Massimo Rivola says Jorge Martin was “remarkable” and ‘miraculous’ at the Qatar MotoGP, although the title slipped further away.
Jorge Martin has been praised as “remarkable” by Massimo Rivola after his Qatar MotoGP performances.
Martin was a stunning third in the Sprint at Lusail despite riding with a two-week-old broken wrist, and backed that up with seventh on Sunday.
They were strong performances given Martin’s physical condition, but with Marc Marquez taking the Sprint win and second in the grand prix it still meant Martin lost 16 points in the title race and heads to Portimao 60 points adrift of the Ducati rider in the MotoGP standings.
But it was nonetheless an effort from the Mallorcan that was worthy of praise.
“What he did today was really remarkable; what he did [in the Sprint] was a sort of miracle,” Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola told MotoGP.com after the Qatar race.
“In addition to the physical problem, I would like to add that last year on this track he was going to feel to stop his career.
“So, I cannot be really in his shoes, but if I put myself on him, coming back here for sure was something special, and coming with that physical condition – even more. So, chapeau to him.”
The points difference means winning the title is now extremely difficult for Martin, who will still be inhibited to some degree by his injured wrist in the final two races of the season.
Rivola says Aprilia can only hope to win the remaining races and see where that puts them.
“At the end, you just have to win everything and then see what’s going on,” he said.
“That was the approach we had since the beginning and it cost us also a lot of points and mistakes, but it’s like this.
“Ready to fight, ready to bring it until the very last, and hopefully we can bring home very soon the teams’ championship, and we want to fight for the manufacturers’ because it’s something that we do care [about] a lot, and I think also we deserve it.”
Despite the bleakness of the championship situation, Aprilia won in Qatar with Marco Bezzecchi who led from lights-to-flag.
“I think he [Bezzecchi] deserved it,” Rivola said of Bezzecchi’s race.
“He would have deserved the Sprint, too, but Marco is not the best Saturday player during the season so far, so let’s hope that he can deliver on the next two and then we will see.
“But he was very fast since the FP1, so he kept the pace, was very focused to build the gap, and I think he just did it perfectly.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
