Jorge Martín, known as Martinator, expressed total happiness during his meeting with Spanish journalists in Le Mans. When AS remarked that he seemed like version 2.0 of Martinator—looking as good as before his injury, or even better—he nodded in agreement.
“Well, yes. Probably better. I feel good. Aprilia is giving me what I need. Today’s race was tougher in terms of confidence. When I was behind other riders, I struggled to turn and get the bike’s potential out. But little by little, I freed myself from them. When I reached Marco (Bezzecchi), I had to try, and I had a little extra,” he began.
Asked about the key to his sprint win being an extraordinary start—unlike this race where he didn’t gain positions and stayed seventh—he honestly replied: “I thought, ‘I’m screwed.’ But I had faith and hope until the end. I never stopped believing I could do better. Better than seventh is sixth, better than sixth is fifth… So step by step, I recovered positions. I never settled for any position and fought until the end.”
Regarding his many overtakes—aside from benefiting from Bagnaia’s crash—he commented: “I think the one on Marco was the best. He heard me coming, and I still managed to get the bike in. I had to use first gear instead of second in that corner to avoid running wide, but I got that first gear in the change of direction for good acceleration. Then I saw I had a bit more, but I didn’t know if I could break the race. I tried and managed to pull out four or five tenths, which let me relax.”
On cutting the championship gap to just one point from the leader, and whether he imagined—back in the hospital at his worst—that he would live such a moment again, he said: “No, never. I always wanted to, but I never thought I’d be in this situation again. The important thing is to work and keep improving my feelings, because today the sensations weren’t the best, but still I had faith I could pull through. Now I need to keep working to improve those feelings and feel more comfortable on the Aprilia. After Montmeló, there will likely be an important test, and we’re on a good path. We have to keep going.”
He added: “When you’re down and thinking about getting back on a bike, you don’t think about winning again. You just think about getting back on a bike. After being in the hospital with 14 broken ribs, getting back on a bike and making a podium already gives me the confidence to say, ‘It’s possible.’ But from there to winning races is another story. And that’s something you build. Right now I’m at my best professionally, personally, spiritually… and I think it shows. It’s a combination of everything.”
That process has made him a better rider than even in 2024: “I say it a lot: I’m grateful for everything that has happened to me, because thanks to that, I am who I am today. It all adds up. No, I wasn’t coming from a bad place, but I went through… I was very close to quitting racing. 2025 was so bad that I had to adapt to a new bike all over again.”
