Jorge Martin’s Motegi practice sessions hindered by muscle injury

Hiroki Ono was just a tenth of a second off starting his home Grand Prix with the fastest lap of the day today, the Japanese youngster conceding top spot at Motegi to Enea Bastianini, who lapped just half a second off the best Moto3 lap here with a time of 1’56.982.

On a day that saw track temperatures of 30ºC, Livio Loi completed a top three separated by four tenths of a second. Jorge Navarro, who remains locked in battle with Bastianini for the runner-up spot in the championship, finished the opening day at Motegi in fourth position ahead of Nicolò Bulega, Joan Mir and Mahindra Pull&Bear Aspar rider Pecco Bagnaia. Brad Binder, the newly-crowned World Champion, could only manage twelfth position after a couple of crashes.

Mahindra Pull&Bear Aspar rider Jorge Martín saw his chances ruined today by a crash in the first session when he had just six laps under his belt. The Spaniard suffered an injury to the tibialis anterior muscle (shin) on his left leg, which ruled him out of the remainder of the session and only allowed him to complete two decent laps in the afternoon.

Martín lies 26th on the timesheets after the opening day thanks to his best lap before the crash this morning.

26th Jorge Martín 1.58.513 (10 laps):
“It has been a tough season with so many injuries and today it has happened again. It is only muscular, but I have a lot of pain from my shin muscle. In general it hasn’t been a very positive day because after the crash I was unable to ride and only managed two laps this afternoon. We will see how we are tomorrow and try to drop the lap time but if I can only manage a couple of laps it is hard to imagine that I’ll cope with a full race. It was a strange crash because I was already tucked in and I went flying. I landed hard and struggled to move at first but it was only a scare.”

Source: Aspar Media