Now, that said, the 2026 MotoGP title race just took a brutal, violent twist at Phillip Island. As The Race reports, Jorge Martin and his Aprilia team have suffered a huge blow after a crash in the sprint ended with at least one fracture discovered in the rider's arm.
The incident happened at the fast Hayshed corner, which is Turn 8, following a multi-lap lead battle with title rival Marc Marquez. Martin exited the sprint race right there, rolling violently through the gravel before being taken to the medical centre on a stretcher and emerging with his right arm in a cast.
Aprilia subsequently revealed that Martin has fractured his right arm. While he will still require further examinations to determine the full extent of the damage, he has already been declared unfit for the remainder of the Phillip Island weekend.
According to Aprilia, a fracture to the right radial bone, which is one of the two primary bones in the forearm, has been definitively diagnosed. But there is also a suspected fracture to the other primary forearm bone, the ulna, at the distal end, meaning towards the wrist rather than the elbow.
No recovery timeline has been outlined given the absence of a full diagnosis, but the injury makes it all but impossible for Martin to realistically remain in this title race. He is 10 points behind Marquez in the standings and will miss Sunday's race, but the injury has also come at the start of a planned triple-header covering also the Sepang race and the in-doubt Qatar race.
History shows a painful precedent for the Aprilia rider. Martin had suffered two radial fractures already, both on the left arm, earlier in his grand prix career. One came during the 2018 season in Moto3, forcing him to miss one race but with a quick enough recovery to enable him to win the title that year, while the other happened before the start of the 2025 season and, along with a spate of other injuries from the same crash, sidelined him for two rounds.
