MotoGP, Bezzecchi: “I pushed too hard, I had to fight with the front at the end”

The Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin relegated Marco Bezzecchi to a 6th place. Faced with a rather negative start to the weekend, and a slip up during the first test session on Friday, the Mooney VR46 Racing Team rider limited the damage as much as possible, even taking advantage of some of the other riders’ zeroes, such as Francesco Bagnaia’s, allowing Bez to retain his championship lead at the end of the first three stages of the season.

“Being at the top of the championship is a great satisfaction, but it’s still nothing because it’s too early,” the winner of the Argentine GP said. “I had a lot of problems on Friday. Yesterday, I managed to compete in a decent sprint race, while today it was very easy to make a mistake. Overall, I can say I’m happy.”

Ranked 4th in the opening stages of the race, in Luca Marini’s slipstream (2nd at the finish line), with the overtaking that followed, Bezzecchi gradually lost contact with his teammate, surrendering in the end to Maverick Vinales’ and Miguel Oliveira’s Aprilias: “I probably pushed a bit too much. In the last seven laps, I had to fight with a worn out front. This track has many right-hand corners. Managing the front tire is complicated. And today I erred in this respect. I could and should have done more.”

The Ducati rider already has his sights set on returning to the Old Continent for the next GP at Jerez de la Frontera, where he’ll have an 11-length advantage over Pecco Bagnaia, who experienced a miserable fall for the second time this season: “I haven’t seen the  fall yet, so I can’t say if it was his inaccuracy or something else. When it’s wet, it’s easy to make mistakes. If you remember, I also risked a lot in Argentina at the last corner. These are special conditions in which you must always stay on top of things. He was instead very strong this weekend, as was the wind today during the race. However, I have to see what happened before I can answer,” he concluded.