Marco Bezzecchi “didn’t want to pass” during Quartararo collision

Marco Bezzecchi finishing just 0.085s shy of the Brno MotoGP Sprint podium despite early-race contact with Fabio Quartararo damaging his RS-GP.

While eyes were on Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin’s MotoGP return, Bezzecchi was again a podium contender, recovering from seventh to fourth.

Bezzecchi had crossed paths with front-row qualifier Quartararo on lap 2 of 10, later insisting he hadn’t been planning a pass.

“Unfortunately, the contact with Fabio was a mistake that complicated things,” Bezzecchi admitted.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect it at all. I saw he was going wide, so I made my turn, and then he rightly came back to his line. I touched him. I’m sorry about that.”

Quartararo said: “I could hear the noise of Bezzecchi’s bike, and I could also feel his tyre when he hit the rear of my bike.

“It was close for both of us. I was struggling a bit with grip with the medium during this Sprint, and he was riding on the soft rear.”

As well as losing several places, the light collision was enough to shear off Bezzecchi’s left wing and damage the left fork wing, affecting the RS-GP’s handling for the remainder of the race.

“It was unbalanced first of all,” he explained. “But also I destroyed my arm trying to brake, because you need to make a lot more pressure to stop. Fortunately, I was still able to make some good overtakes. So I’m happy.”

Bezzecchi clawed his way back up the order, slicing past Raul Fernandez, Francesco Bagnaia, and finally Quartararo, before closing to within a fraction of a second of Enea Bastianini at the chequered flag.

It was the fifth time in as many races that the Italian has either fought for, or claimed, a podium finish.

Martin took the chequered flag in eleventh place during his first Sprint since Qatar in April.