The worst MotoGP title defences in history as Jorge Martin sets a new record after injury-hit 2025

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Jorge Martin made MotoGP history by winning the 2024 title for an independent team, but injury after injury destroyed his 2025 season to spark the worst title defence ever.

MotoGP had not had a riders’ champion from an independent team since it rebranded from the 500cc era back in 2002 until Martin secured Pramac the 2024 title riding a factory-spec Ducati Desmosedici. It marked his final act with Pramac, too, as he moved to Aprilia in 2025.

But Martin suffered multiple injuries right from the very start of his Aprilia adventure, which ultimately meant the Spaniard only contested eight of the record 22 rounds during the 2025 MotoGP season. Martin even started only seven of the eight Grands Prix he entered in 2025.

In the end, Martin’s injury nightmare ensured he finished 511 points adrift as Marc Marquez won the 2025 riders’ championship for his first title since 2019. Ducati rejected hiring Martin to sign Marquez for 2025, which also persuaded the former to leave Pramac and join Aprilia.

Jorge Martin’s injury nightmare produced the worst MotoGP title defence in history

Martin beat Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati to win the 2024 MotoGP title by just 10 points with Pramac. But the Madrid native’s move to Aprilia in 2025 did not get off to a good start, as he fractured his right hand and left foot on the first day of the opening Sepang pre-season test.

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Those injuries were not expected to sideline Martin, but he then fractured his left hand on a Supermoto while training and would sit out the first three rounds. Then, on his Aprilia debut during the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, Martin broke 11 ribs and suffered a hemopneumothorax.

Fabio Di Giannantonio of VR46 was helpless to avoid riding into Martin after the Aprilia rider had just crashed during the Qatar GP. The Spaniard would miss seven rounds, during which Martin tried to break his Aprilia contract to join Honda for 2026, before he returned at Brno.

But his injury struggles were not finished, as Martin suffered a displaced fracture of the right collarbone in Japan. Martin crashed into Aprilia teammate Marco Bezzecchi on the first lap of the Motegi Sprint Race in round 17/22, and he only returned for the season finale in Valencia.

All of his injuries, as well as having to learn a new team at Aprilia and a new bike after riding Ducati Desmosedicis since 2021, meant Martin only scored 34 points in 2025. Marquez won the 2025 title on 545 points from 18 of the 22 rounds, after suffering a season-ending injury.

Nicky Hayden produced the worst injury-free MotoGP title defence to date in 2007

It marks the worst title defence in MotoGP history, with Martin even eclipsing the 171-point deficit that Marquez faced after he sustained a career-threatening injury in the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix. Marquez only started the first of the 14 races in the Covid-disrupted 2020 term.

Martin’s unwanted record of the worst MotoGP title defence to date after finishing the 2025 season 511 points behind Marquez is somewhat skewed by the introduction of Sprint Races in 2023. But he would still shatter the 240-point deficit that Nicky Hayden endured in 2007.

Hayden beat Valentino Rossi to win his only MotoGP title during the 2006 season, with only five points separating the American from the Italian atop the standings after 17 rounds. The Honda hero even won the title at the season finale in Valencia despite only taking two wins.

But Hayden struggled as the defending champion in the 2007 season, as Casey Stoner put Ducati atop the world for the first time ever with a 240-point margin over the Honda rider in only P8. Stoner beat the other Honda star, Dani Pedrosa, to win the 2007 title by 125 points.

Hayden also failed to take a single Grand Prix win during the 2007 season, and he only made three visits to the podium after P3 finshes in the Netherlands, Germany and Czech Republic. His average finish was P8.2 from 15 results, having retired in France, the USA and Australia.