MotoGP | Bezzecchi: “I made a mistake, it’s always difficult to accept”

In the Le Mans Sprint we found Marco Bezzecchi again, in difficulty in the first races of the season, but increasingly confident and comfortable with the Desmosedici GP23 as the weekends went by. In France he showed himself to be competitive and able to chase Jorge Martin, the absolute dominator of the weekend, but not everything went as hoped. A crash at Turn 9 put an end to his Sprint when he was firmly in second position, behind a now uncatchable Martinator.

“It was a good Sprint until I made a mistake,” said the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider, commenting on his race. “I just tried to keep pushing and maybe I tried too hard at Turn 9. I didn’t brake too late, but I leaned the bike a little earlier than on the previous lap and, in doing so, the front closed. Unfortunately I crashed, but up to that point it was a good race.”

Despite the crash that didn’t allow him to see the checkered flag, the outcome of the weekend was Bez so far it’s positive. In direct Q2, the driver from Viserba grabbed the second row in qualifying and was the author not only of an excellent start, but also of good laps, showing an interesting pace. The fall ruined the good plans, but it’s still there on Sunday: “It’s always a bit difficult to accept, but you have to try not to get down because it leads to nothing and try to take the positive of what was up until now. that moment of the fall, but above all learning and understanding why it happened.”

“At the start and on the first lap, Martin was much, much better than me, particularly in Turns 6, 7 and 8,” confessed the VR46 rider. “He opened a small gap and I, with new tyres, still struggling to get the bike to turn during braking and mid-corner. So he earned me. Then on the second and third lap I was really fast and I caught up a little, but I was too on the limit to really get close. So I had to slow down because I was starting to make mistakes. So I kept following him to try to escape with him until I made that mistake.”

“Anyway up to that point I’m satisfied because I made a very good start, I did the first two or three corners really well, I put myself in the right position and managed to go second straight away. Then I did 30”8 twice in a row. I’m happy for this, we have to try to continue working and stay on track”, explained Bezzecchi.

The Sprint’s performance today made us forget about the adaptation problems of Bez at the GP23, however they have not disappeared: “The problem at entry is still a bit, I’m trying to compensate with the riding. But sometimes it’s difficult and when you push and drive over problems it’s not so easy. This weekend, however, the base is not bad. Matteo (Flamigni, ed) and the whole team did a great job with the bike, so work well. I just made a small mistake that caused me to fall. We’re fighting for thousandths, so it seems like a big gap, but that’s not the case. When you try to look for details it becomes tougher. So that’s why I try not to modify the bike too much and try to ride better each time to learn how to compensate for this problem. Something is missing, but we will find it.”

For tomorrow’s race, all eyes are on the sky to see if the rain could mess up the plans: “We will certainly use the soft at the back, at the front it depends a lot on the weather. I would really like to race on the hard tire because it is the tire I prefer for the way I ride. But he suffers a lot from the temperature, so we have to try to understand the conditions well, we’ll see. I hope it’s dry because I need to ride the bike. When you’re not super okay you need to turn. In the wet you learn, but it’s different.”