Jorge Martin's MotoGP 2026 points lead actually doubled in the most recent round at the Sachsenring, from seven points to 14.
But the lead, though better than the alternative, is fool's gold - and Martin himself is as aware of this as anybody.
The superb baseline competitive level of the Aprilia RS-GP has kept his championship challenge afloat even through ordeals like his crash into several title rivals at Balaton, but it's clear he has really laboured.
Trackhouse Aprilia riders Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez have both outscored him in each of the last four rounds. Marc Marquez, who trailed Martin by 85 points coming out of Mugello four rounds ago, is now 18 back.
Factory Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi has had a brutal stretch of his own, but when asked whether Bezzecchi's Sachsenring withdrawal through injury influenced his title prospects, Martin said: "There are a lot of riders for the championship, and they are all doing better than me, so I need to improve myself."
He admitted after just fighting off Pecco Bagnaia for an attrition-aided fifth place in the German Grand Prix: "I'm happy to be leading, it's always a nice feeling - but I think it's anecdotal now.
"We need to find the speed because I can be leading now, but if I continue making races like this one, I won't be in the lead too much longer."
It is, of course, imperative for Martin to find the answer to his struggles in the summer break - and for Aprilia, too. It is, right now, in real danger of putting the entire weight of its championship aspirations onto the shoulders of second-year MotoGP rider (and Martin's future Yamaha team-mate) Ai Ogura. Ogura has been very good, but it would be a tall ask.
But Martin, who had come into the season with minimal championship buzz given another compromised pre-season and the total disaster of his 2025 with Aprilia, did prove this year already that he can make the bike work. Hence the championship lead.
"I know that the potential is high. I was super confident the first part of the season, then the last few races, I've been struggling with the speed. So we need to analyse well what happened and maybe go back to that bike [set-up] because I was feeling much better."
Martin had revelled in the front end of the Aprilia when he first tried an RS-GP in the 2024 post-season test - but the bike has obviously changed much since, and as of late, the front end is not his friend, proving too precarious for him to manage.
"I think now we are quite far away from the bike we used in the first part of the season - in Austin, in Brazil, in Le Mans," he said.
"What I can see is that the other riders are more stable with their bikes. They know what they have and they just go. From my side of the box, we are always trying to adapt the bike to the different tracks to try to help me, but maybe this is not the way for the Aprilia, so we need to understand this.
"I think [we need to] just analyse when I was fast, what was working, and when I'm slow, what is not working. And then start the second part of the season in that direction. That's it.
"Hard work during the summer, not a lot of rest days, honestly, and try to be stronger in the second part of the season."
To figure it out, though, Martin and Aprilia need to trace the moment things took a wrong turn - and whether it's one moment, whether it's a change to the set-up, a change to a component, or perhaps a change to his physical condition.
The Race put to him that it feels like the downward trend can be traced to Barcelona (a weekend where he crashed time and time again, before also crashing hard in the Monday test) and the following weekend at Mugello - a suggestion that left Martin quizzical.
"Mugello was second [place in the sprint] and second [place in the grand prix], so it's not bad," he insisted.
Certainly, he'd sign up for those kinds of weekends now. But Mugello, even at the time, felt like more of a reflection of Aprilia's supremacy at the circuit, and Martin was third of four Aprilias in qualifying, then in both races largely capitalised on stellar opening-lap work.
It's fair to wonder whether he still wasn't quite right after the Barcelona calamities at that point - and whether he still somehow isn't quite right.
Or maybe it's a back injury - reported as totally minor at the time, but perhaps more significant - sustained in that Balaton pile-up.
"Barcelona, maybe, after so many crashes, something clicked [in the wrong direction] - but then Mugello I was super strong!
"Hungary was a difficult weekend, then I had this problem in my back, and maybe from that point I started to lose a bit of confidence.
"But today was not about confidence, it was about the limit. We need to move a bit forward the limit, because...it's not that I don't feel confidence, it's that I lose the front. We need to work on that, and maybe work on my style, and try to understand how to be faster."
There's time to understand now, but obviously no RS-GP mileage to check the homework until MotoGP returns from its current July break at Silverstone.
Aprilia should have a prime opportunity to re-establish its 2026 buffer over Ducati there, but it really needs Martin specifically to be at or near the forefront.
from The Race https://ift.tt/k8Lqxtw
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