Bezzecchi loses (almost) all hope: what happened after the injury

Marco Bezzecchi returned to the podium at Motegi, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez. The rider from Romagna on the Aprilia took a solid third place, fending off Enea Bastianini’s attack in the final laps. But with six races to go and a 49-point gap to the top, it will take a miracle to keep the MotoGP title dream alive.

Bezzecchi said he was satisfied with the result, especially after a difficult Saturday marked by the drop-off of the medium tires. The story changed completely on Sunday with the hard tires. "It was a tough race, especially at the end. Bastianini was super fast, he was furious. I tried to improve my lap times and in the end we were fighting," said the VR46 protégé at the end of the Japanese GP.

Sixth in the MotoGP Sprint, third in the race, but both Marquez and Martin had something extra at Motegi. In the final part of the Grand Prix his direct rival was right behind him: Enea Bastianini. To keep him at bay, he had to give everything he had to hold onto the podium. A fine performance from ‘Bez’, though he can’t say the same about the Sprint’s outcome.

The key to the race was the Michelin hard tire, while the medium compound doomed him in Saturday’s contest. "Yesterday I took a risk with the medium tire and it didn’t work as expected. The hard tire turned out to be very interesting, pleasant, and fun to ride. If I had known earlier, I could have worked on it from the start."

Marco Bezzecchi and the Aprilia crew in the box felt they had missed an opportunity. "Yes, I’m a bit disappointed, but I think it’s a shared opinion. Surely the engineers think the same. It might not be very useful for the future because it’s our last year with Michelin, but similar situations could still come up before the end of the season and we can learn from this experience."

In truth, the injury suffered in Germany marked Bezzecchi’s ʼ26 MotoGP season. "After the injury, when I came back I was immediately quick, but slower than Marc and Jorge. I’m missing the confidence I had before the injury, which allowed me to be competitive right away." That lack of confidence proved fatal in a MotoGP championship, where every tenth makes the difference. "I think I’m missing a bit of explosiveness at the start. Maybe it’s not explosiveness, but confidence. That confidence that makes you faster from Friday and lets you start the weekend already on the limit."

At this point in the championship, it will be difficult to keep hoping for the world title, with the top two in the standings pulling away. "With the level we have now and with Marquez and Jorge in such good form, you can’t afford to lose a second. Maybe I’ll improve on Sunday, but I’ll never be close enough," concluded Marco Bezzecchi. "It’s true that in some races I haven’t lost much, but in all of them I lose a bit. We need to try to stay in the mix, understand what we’re missing, and be able to say: I’m still in the fight. That’s the goal."

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