Marco Bezzecchi explains why he was “mentally and physically destroyed"

Marco Bezzecchi says that not having Jorge Martin in the factory Aprilia garage in the MotoGP preseason left him “a bit destroyed”.

Bezzecchi was joined by Lorenzo Savadori in the Aprilia Racing garage for much of the first half of the season due to Jorge Martin’s injury troubles that saw the Spaniard only complete his first full length MotoGP race for the Noale brand in Czechia, the final round before the summer break.

It meant that Bezzecchi, who joined Aprilia from the VR46 Racing Ducati team over the winter, was the primary development rider for the factory during the winter testing campaign.

Marco Bezzecchi explains impact of Jorge Martin absence

“It was a good [first half of the season],” Marco Bezzecchi told MotoGP.com’s After the Flag show in Brno.

“For sure, the first couple of races have been tough because I was coming from a different and difficult preseason testing, all alone developing the bike.

“Of course, I had the help from Sava [Lorenzo Savadori], from the Trackhouse boys, but the major part of the development was on me and it was tough.

“I was really mentally and physically a bit destroyed, especially mentally.

“So, the first races, when the result wasn’t really coming, I was also a bit sad because I was expecting a bit better, seeing all the job that we did.

“But after, we kept calm, we kept cool, and everything started to feel a bit better, and we continued to work to make some steps, and everything went a bit better so we started to grab some good results.

“This was fantastic.”

Bezzecchi said that having Martin back for the remainder of the season is positive for Aprilia’s development.

“Of course, now it’s all about the details,” he told the post-race press conference in Brno.

“Ducati has many riders, many data, many strong riders also.

“Now that Jorge [Martin] came back we can collect even more data together with the Trackhouse crew, so we have to adjust everything in the best way possible.”