Jorge Martin's first day back on Aprilia's MotoGP bike went "better than expected" - a big positive for Aprilia to take away from Friday practice at the Qatar Grand Prix.
But also perhaps the only positive.
Only one bike wasn't represented in the top 10 in practice - the Aprilia RS-GP - and in fact it wasn't represented in the top 14 either.
And with the likes of Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller, KTM’s Brad Binder and the two works Hondas among those in Q1 tomorrow, there's a distinct possibility that after beginning the season with three RS-GPs in Q2 in Thailand Aprilia will have none of them in Q2 for a second weekend straight.
Martin's target wasn't Q2, and his pure results this weekend are largely irrelevant - which means his cheery demeanour was by far the best part of a day Aprilia racing boss Massimo Rivola had described as the real start of Aprilia's season.
Why Martin had to overcome nerves
A pair of 20th-place laps isn't a particularly emphatic return, but Martin was already encouraged just to be on the pace - and to banish the demons of his aborted pre-season, which consisted almost entirely of two strange crashes at the very start of his running at Sepang.
"Before exiting [the pits] today I was really really scared, let's say, or nervous. Because I didn't know what to expect," Martin admitted.
"The last feeling with the bike was terrible. So... I was really scared to have the same feeling, but as soon as I went on the track already first lap I was just touching with the elbow, I was feeling... 'feeling' again.
"It's really hard to ride a MotoGP for the first day. But I feel it wasn't that bad. The target was to test the physical condition, and I was able to do the whole day, this is already a success. So, yeah, I feel good and I feel we are better than what I expected."
Martin was unsurprisingly supported by a considerable dose of painkillers and was exhausted by the end of the day, with pain in the left-side corners (as he'd fractured his left radius and scaphoid in that training crash) less of an issue than having to compensate with the right side of his body and thus overstressing it.
"In the morning I just did- I was able to make two laps, and then I needed to stop. In the evening I was able to make four-five, so I think the step was huge."
The biggest performance limitations from the bike side were inconsistency on the braking and uncertainty on the set-up
"I just need to have two-three-four races to start to be competitive again,” he suggested.
Martin also acknowledged that he was keeping "10%" or so in reserve during the qualifying simulations in practice, to ensure he doesn't get injured again.
"I told the team, like, 'I don't want even to put the soft [rear tyre on] - we put it on because it's good information but I didn't push my 100%.
"When I feel ready or at my 100% in terms of physical condition, I will push harder."
That won't come this weekend, and in fact he's not convinced he'll be able to see the weekend through.
"If you asked me in the morning, I would've said impossible,” Martin admitted of his chances of actually racing this weekend. “Now maybe it's a possibility - but let's see how I wake up tomorrow."
The rest of the squad
But if Martin is keeping so much in reserve and so limited by inexperience and injury, why aren't the rest of the Aprilia riders further ahead?
The reigning champion trailed Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura by four and a half tenths of a second in practice, with the two other Aprilia riders - Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi - slotting in between.
Ogura was his usual blunt-but-amused self when asked whether it meant something for him being top Aprilia again: "No, nothing. I’m P15. That’s it.”
But he also pointedly suggested that, since the data suggested he, Bezzecchi and Fernandez were all struggling in different places, it was "not from the bike, it's from the riders".
For Ogura, it was "Turns 10-11. I couldn't find any grip, and I lose easily two tenths there. And... it's not really a corner, no? It's almost straight. But I lose a lot there".
"I think it's all about how you approach and how you play with the angle. I hope tomorrow will be better."
Factory rider Bezzecchi, who was supposed to hold the fort in Martin's absence but has had an uneven start to the season, looked and sounded the least confident than he has had at any other point in 2025 so far.
He "just couldn't find the speed", battling a bike that was really aggressive on the throttle - which meant it was often not settled in time for the next corner, with the turns coming thick and fast at Lusail.
"We are trying to answer this since [the end-of-2024 test at] Montmelo. I think it’s always a mix. It’s a combination of things. But all the Aprilia riders are complaining about this."
But though this is "the key point" he also insisted that "we have to improve everywhere".
Remarkably, Fernandez was upbeat, describing his day as "really positive" and feeling that his performance was misrepresented because the braking didn't feel right with the new tyre on his second bike in the final run - leading to a lap-ruining mistake at Turn 4.
But Fernandez also felt the RS-GP was just not performing here - and that it has lost its stability specifically in fast corners, which used to be "a very good point".
"We are not really competitive here and we don’t know well what is the way to come back to be competitive because last year it was not a bad track for Aprilia," he mused. "I don’t know why this year we are struggling a lot. I didn’t see one Aprilia at the top so we need to see how we can improve the Aprilia bike because I think this bike has better potential than last year’s bike."
Increasingly, the delivery of that potential looks at the mercy of a rookie's progression and an injured rider's recovery.
