MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin has been diagnosed with a collarbone fracture following his crash with Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi at the start of the Motegi sprint.
Martin lost control of his bike on approach to Turn 1, leading to a hard impact with his team-mate, in which Bezzecchi appeared to have come off worse initially.
LIGHTS OUT in the #TissotSprint 🚥@PeccoBagnaia nails the start as @88jorgemartin and Bezzecchi are out at the first corner 😱#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/Q9d9z35wMY
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 27, 2025
But while Bezzecchi looked relatively unhurt if shaken up getting up on his feet, Martin was seen holding his right arm - and headed to the circuit medical centre for checks.
An X-ray revealed, according to his Aprilia team, a "displaced fracture of the right collarbone" - meaning a break in which the pieces of the bone are misaligned.
Martin subsequently headed by helicopter to Dokkyo Medical University in Mibu - a town just under 50km away from the circuit - for a CT scan.
The Spaniard is ruled out from the rest of the Motegi weekend. He will fly to Spain on Sunday, and is set to go under the knife on Monday at the Dexeus hospital, with MotoGP-famous Dr. Xavier Mir tapped to operate.
Bezzecchi also had further medical checks on his right leg, but his injuries were limited to a contusion "with no serious consequences" according to Aprilia.
Fermin Aldeguer, whose Turn 1 battle with Jack Miller ended up squeezing Martin further to the inside and contributed to the dynamics of the subsequent incident, recalled: "This thing can happen, he passed very close to me on the right side, and when I saw him I said 'you are lost'. Because the control of the bike wasn't there."
"I mean, it was so unfortunate," said Miguel Oliveira, who was among those caught up in the aftermath. "For me, he [Martin] was extremely-extremely optimistic on the right side.
"And the problem is, when he first grabbed the brake, the bike was already quite unsettled, so he had to adjust his brake, and because of that going so fast - luckily he just took out one. I think that was the positive side of it. Because it could've been much worse. Unfortunate incident, yeah."
Lonely sprint for me after losing 20 seconds on the first lap trying to avoid the accident. Wishing Jorge a good and speedy recovery, you will come back stronger as always 💪🏻 #JapaneseGP #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/jpN4RJ3Ehk
— Alex Rins (@Rins42) September 27, 2025
It is the fourth substantial injury reigning champion Martin has suffered in his first year as an Aprilia rider.
He was hurt twice in the pre-season - first during testing, with hand and foot fractures from a Sepang crash, then in a training crash that led to worse hand injuries.
Upon finally returning to MotoGP competition for round four in Qatar in April, he crashed and was hit by Fabio Di Giannantonio's Ducati, suffering broken ribs and a lung injury that put him back on the sidelines again until July.
