Bezzecchi battles through pain at Silverstone, and even gets fined: what happened

Positive Friday for the Romagna rider, returning after recent physical problems: will he be fast all weekend in Great Britain? A penalty also arrives.

Marco Bezzecchi’s physical condition at Silverstone is not ideal—no secret there. He has undergone surgery on both his left knee and left collarbone and is not yet fully recovered. The Aprilia rider had anticipated that during this MotoGP weekend in Great Britain he would have to grit his teeth a bit, and that from the next GP in Aragon (August 28–30) he would be able to put up more of a fight.

On Friday he surprised by setting the second-fastest time in FP1 and then topping the Pre-Qualifying. He also set a new lap record, smashing the previous one by almost a second and pulling more than three tenths clear of Raul Fernandez, who was second in the day’s final standings. Despite the impressive performance, the rider from Romagna is keeping his feet on the ground: he still feels pain, and the races—especially Sunday’s long one—will be tougher for him.

Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP, Bezzecchi recounted how he lived through the post-surgery period: "They were tough days. I had to undergo two operations: the knee one was supposed to be fairly minor, but it turned out to be complex. I also had to delay my departure and got here a day late. The shoulder suffered a significant fracture, it required a lot of work; especially in the first few days I suffered a lot."

His left collarbone sustained a complete, displaced fracture in the crash during Sachsenring Qualifying, but there were also consequences for his left knee: "I had a very deep wound from the crash, the rider explains, and they closed it up to get me home, then reopened it to fix it properly. The problem is I wore down a lot of the knee, down to the bone. The operation was pretty tough."

Even though he was the fastest of all in Pre-Qualifying, the Rimini native is not getting carried away for the rest of the weekend; he confirms he is struggling physically and has no particular expectations: "Overall, I’m having a hard time: after the third lap I started to struggle a lot, regardless of how hard I was pushing. The sprint is a race that physically stresses the body a lot, and qualifying also requires a considerable effort. I’ll do everything I can."

Friday ended with some bad news for Bezzecchi, who was fined 1,000 euros for carrying out a start procedure test after Turn 14 before the checkered flag was shown. This constitutes a violation of Article 3.3.2.2 of the FIM Regulations and carries a monetary penalty.

It is not the first fine the Aprilia rider has received for similar situations in the 2026 MotoGP championship. He was also penalized at Brno and Assen for irregularities committed specifically during start practice. In those cases as well, the fine was 1,000 euros.

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