Marco Bezzecchi insists he “did everything right” at the start of the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix sprint after Marc Marquez pulled off yet another overtake on him into Turn 1.
Bezzecchi smashed the Misano circuit record on Saturday morning to put his Aprilia on pole position for Saturday’s half-distance race, but he was unable to hold on to the lead for long, with Ducati rival Marquez shooting past him under braking for the opening right-hander.
This marked the third consecutive occasion where Marquez got a better launch than Bezzecchi, negating the Italian’s heroic one-lap performance.
In the Aragon sprint, Marquez overtook the Aprilia rider in similar fashion at Turn 1 to lay the foundation for his fifth Saturday win of the year. He replicated the move again a day later, but a combination of Bezzecchi’s tighter line and an open ride-height device on Marquez’s Ducati allowed Bezzecchi to repass him immediately afterwards.
While the 27-year-old admitted that he was too conservative in both Aragon races, he felt Marquez managed to overtake this time because he simply got a better launch from second on the grid.
“Well, in Aragon, he was more aggressive and I was maybe a little bit too soft. But today, I can’t complain about myself because I did everything right,” he said.
“I braked strongly and I closed the line a bit. He was just a little bit better than me. So, overall, I can’t complain too much about my performance.”
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Bezzecchi opted for Michelin’s soft rear tyre in the sprint, following a strategy adopted by much of the field. By contrast, title rivals Marquez and Jorge Martin went with the medium rear, despite practice suggesting that tyre degradation at Misano was minimal.
The contrast in tyre choices should have given Bezzecchi an edge in the opening laps, but he was unable to keep up with Marquez’s pace, with the Ducati rider pulling out a lead of a second by lap five.
It was only on lap eight that Bezzecchi upped his ante and brought the gap back down to 0.6s, before Marquez responded and extended his advantage back up to a second. The erstwhile championship leader explained that he has been suffering in early laps on a full fuel tank, while he is at his strongest over a single lap in practice and qualifying.
“It took a little bit longer than I expected to reach a good pace in the sprint,” he admitted. “Honestly, I was suffering with stability [issues] a little bit and the rear was pushing a little bit on the front.
“In the three practices, I felt a little bit better. This is a problem that we already had also the last two GPs. When I start the race with the full fuel tank and everything, I struggle a little bit more in the first three or four laps.
“At the end, when I got confidence, I started to go faster and because of this, I’m very happy. Overall, in general, it was a very good day.”
Following Saturday’s sprint, Martin leads the championship by 14 points over Marquez, with Bezzecchi another eight points adrift in third.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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