Jorge Lorenzo calls out Aprilia team boss for Jorge Martin critique: 'You've never been a rider'

The 54-year-old Italian executive is on a high with his Aprilia outfit leading all three riders', teams’ and constructors' championships, but he made a misstep last time out, according to Jorge Lorenzo.

Aprilia saw both of their lead riders fail to make it past turn one in Hungary when 2024 champion Jorge Martin lost control heading off the line, taking out teammate and championship leader Marco Bezzechi, plus Raul Fernandez, Fermin Aldeguer and Fabio Di Giannantonio (the latter recovered to finish 12th).

There was debate about what went wrong for Martin, who later apologised, but speaking in the heat of the moment, Rivola wasn’t too complimentary:

Unsurprisingly, Rivola’s remarks quickly took up headline space around the globe, and five-time world champion Lorenzo wasn’t best pleased when speaking on the Duralavita Podcast:

The sport’s governing body, the FIM, deemed Martin’s actions rider error rather than mechanical, and have handed the Madrid native a double-long lap penalty next time out at the Czech Grand Prix in Brno.

For Martin, he appeared to take responsibility, simply saying he lost control in a social media statement:

One person who certainly is a MotoGP rider, Di Giannantonio, also had some words for Martin after the incident, despite being the only man of the five to go down at turn who finished the race:

Di Giannantonio’s anger wasn’t isolated, with another wince-inducing turn one incident two races earlier in Barcelona.

LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco got caught under Bagnaia’s Ducati during the restart and will miss a total of four races as a result, with him having to wait for ligament surgery due to burns.

Motorsport.com claim that Brno will serve as a test for the space between grid rows to be increased by three metres, an idea MotoGP sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta already discussed during an interview in Mugello after the Barcelona incident.

Should the test go to plan, the Grand Prix Commission will then be asked to approve it, allowing the regulations to be adjusted full-time for the German Grand Prix and beyond.