Moto3 championship leader Jorge Martin’s season took a serious knock in the first free practice at Brno, the the Del Conca Honda rider suffering a broken arm that will rule him out of this race, and very likely at least one more.

With the Austrian GP next weekend and Martin flying home to Spain for surgery to repair his broken radius bone, today, the chances of recovery are clearly slender.

Martin, Moto3, Czech MotoGP 2018

“It was not a big crash, but the landing on my hand was very heavy,” he said.

Martin has won five of the first nine races, but also no-scored three times with race crashes, two of them not his fault; and regain the points lead from KTM rider Marco Bezzecchi two races ago at Assen. His lead is just seven points.

Just over a year ago he also ruined a strong season with a crash at the Sachsenring. Martin is bound for Moto2 next year, so this the Spaniard’s last chance of a Moto3 title.

By Michael Scott