Marco Bezzecchi aims for qualifying improvement at Italian MotoGP: “We found something”

Marco Bezzecchi arrives at an Italian race for the first time as an Aprilia MotoGP rider this weekend, and is clear on where he needs to improve at Mugello over previous races.

Bezzecchi has had decent, top-six contending pace at each of the past four races in Spain, France, Britain, and Aragon, but in only one of those races has he qualified in the top-10.

That came in France, where an early run-on at turn eight in the Sprint cost him a shot at a decent finish, and where wet weather caused chaos on Sunday.

When Bezzecchi win at Silverstone he did it from 11th on the grid; he was 11th on the grid in Spain, as well, and compounded his difficulties in the Sunday race by running wide at turn one early on; and in Aragon he qualified second-last – ahead of only Somkiat Chantra – after crashing on his first run of Q1.

The post-race test in MotorLand was an opportunity to make progress for the Italian, and he feels some was made having finished second overall on the test timesheets.

“In the test it’s always difficult: many riders do the time attack, many don’t, but also the track is full of rubber,” Marco Bezzecchi told the pre-event press conference at Mugello ahead of the Italian MotoGP.

“So, let’s say it’s a little bit easier to make the lap time compared to a real qualifying.

“Anyway, I had to try, I had to work to do it and we found something.

“Let’s see if we can confirm this positive feeling I had in the Aragon test also in this race but also in the next races that are all important in the same way.”

The Aprilia Racing rider added: “Especially from Jerez to Aragon we were quite competitive in race pace – of course we are still missing something, apart from Silverstone that I was really quick – but the possibility was to fight for positions more in front, like maybe stay with Pedro [Acosta] in Aragon.

“The target is to work on this aspect of the bike.

“It’s something that I’ve been struggling [with], so we tried something in Aragon in the test and we understood something. Not everything was positive, something also was negative, but it’s normal.

“I will try to improve my shape and be more competitive.”