Jorge Martin has made a somewhat contradictory return to the MotoGP stage ahead of this weekend’s Czech Grand Prix, turning up to the pre event media day both conciliatory about his role in causing a pile-up last time out at Balaton that took championship-leading Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi out - but also somewhat defiant about both the cause of the crash and its aftermath.

Martin crashed on the run into Turn 1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, triggering a fall that took out not just himself and Bezzecchi but also fellow Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez and the Ducatis of Fermin Aldeguer (a good friend of Martin's, who joked he would send him an invoice for the podium bonus he missed out on) and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

The crash was considerably influenced by a slippy patch of resurfaced asphalt on the entry of the corner but, given that riders were aware of the issue, still serious enough an error from Martin to earn him a double long-lap penalty for this Sunday’s race.

His initial words on the crash in his first media appearance since it happened (Aprilia having withdrawn Martin, Bezzecchi and Fernandez from post-race meida duties at Balaton) struck a conciliatory note.

“The first thing I want to say,” the 2024 world champion said, “is to apologise to all the riders and manufacturers who were involved. This was my first thought. You can see my picture like this [hands raised to his head], what a disaster I made.

“As a rider I really never want to crash and I never want to crash into other riders and even less after what I went through last season. I don't really want to injure anybody honestly.

"I was really in pain after that Sunday. I was really mentally struggling to accept what happened. Now in the cold I understand that this is racing, these things can happen and the important thing for me is to improve from my mistakes and to try to be a better rider and a better person. That's it.”

However, while he might have expressed anguish at the consequences of his actions, he was quick to explain that he doesn’t believe that he was fully to blame.

“I think honestly I didn't do anything strange,” Martin added. “As soon as I touched the brake I lost the front - so I released a bit. But for sure in this first-gear corner as soon as I released I was really much faster than the rest.

“I tried to brake again and then I lost a bit more of the front and then I lost completely the control. I really hoped at that point that I was able to recover the control but it was impossible. It was a really scary crash but luckily nobody has really big injuries and we can all race here.

“Absolutely the [freshly resurfaced] asphalt was a complete disaster in Turn 1. It's funny but in the safety commission I was telling, like, 'you should put stronger penalisations to somebody that crashed into Turn 1'.

“So I was the first one that didn't want this to happen - but this is racing and we just need to learn from the mistakes.”

He also urged unity within the Aprilia camp following the damage to their championship hopes - even while also pushing back at some of the strong comments made by team boss Massimo Rivola, calling for his own rider to be punished even more harshly than he was.

“At the end of the day it's his opinion,” Martin said when asked about Rivola’s comments. “I cannot share the [same] opinion with everybody. Every person has their own opinion - but, as I said before, I was the first one that didn't want to crash into nobody.

“I'm so sorry for the teams. I just want to learn from that mistake but this is racing. Sometimes I do it, sometimes they do it to me, sometimes other riders can crash into other riders and the important thing for me is to learn and that luckily nothing important happened.

“I think it's time to be more united than ever [within Aprilia] because if we are one against the other ones it's like shooting ourselves. It's no sense. We have to be intelligent. I will be intelligent.

“I spoke with Marco after the race twice. For sure it was difficult in that moment. I spoke today with Massimo and I think we are on the same line. Now it's different compared to two weeks ago and everything is on the same direction.”