Jorge Martin finished the Motegi sprint in third, but the bigger concern for Aprilia Racing was the behaviour of his rear tyre. The Spaniard had started from pole after setting a new Q2 lap record. Marc Marquez took the lead on the run into Turn One, and the two riders remained together for approximately a lap and a half before Marquez began to open a gap.

Martin’s difficulty emerged after five or six laps. Heat first built up on the left side of the soft rear tyre before spreading into its centre. The situation became much worse during the final four laps, when Martin said the rear was spinning even in sixth gear. He also made clear that there had been no prior indication of this kind of overheating at any stage of the weekend.

That experience has changed the tyre calculation for Sunday. Martin had initially considered the soft a possible race choice, but now expects it to be difficult to justify. In his view, the normal drop in performance was not the central problem; excessive heat through the middle of the tyre was far more damaging to the bike’s behaviour. Despite that, Martin said his pace before the issue appeared was comparable with Marquez’s, while Aprilia had made a major step forward from the previous day.

Martin crossed the finish line second, then dropped to third after a track-limits infringement on the final lap. The result cut his championship lead over Marquez from 12 points to seven. Tyre selection and temperature management therefore become central considerations for Martin ahead of Sunday’s race at Motegi, particularly after the rear problem made the soft option look far less convincing than it had before the sprint.