Injured Martin out of Malaysian MotoGP in big title blow

Jorge Martin’s world championship title hopes took a big hit Saturday when he was ruled out of the rest of the Malaysian MotoGP with a broken wrist.

The Spaniard arrived in Kuala Lumpur with a fracture from last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix sprint race.

The Aprilia rider came through unscathed at Friday’s first practice session at Sepang but then only managed a limited number of laps in the afternoon and on Saturday morning.

He did not come out for qualifying and Aprilia said in a statement: “Jorge Martin will withdraw from the remainder of the Malaysian GP to continue his recovery from injury.”

The 2024 champion’s premature exit is a huge boost to current leader and reigning champion Marc Marquez of Ducati.

Marquez leads his fellow Spaniard Martin by 10 points in the championship with three race weekends left after this.

Martin is now in a race to be ready to compete in Qatar next weekend.

“We’ve decided to withdraw (him) from the rest of the weekend,” said Aprilia Racing team manager Paolo Bonora.

“He couldn’t put any force into the bike in the braking areas.

“He’ll return to Spain and assess the Qatar GP in the coming days.”