Marco Bezzecchi hits unseen problem in his battle with Marc Marquez

A “small issue” with his Aprilia RS-GP struck Marco Bezzecchi while he was leading the Austrian MotoGP.

Bezzecchi led the opening 19 laps of the race ahead of Marc Marquez, but fell back to third, also behind the late-charging Fermin Aldeguer, in the closing third of the Austrian MotoGP.

The Italian explained that he was “managing” the race until he was hit with a problem.

“It was a good race,” Marco Bezzecchi told the post-race press conference in Austria.

“I had a lot of fun. I have to say that battling with these guys is always good.

“Unfortunately, mid-race I had a small issue with the bike and I had to slow down a bit.

“In that moment, I was a bit far from Marc – I knew he was managing, for sure, but I was also managing a lot.

“But, in one moment, he caught me immediately, and when I heard him I knew he could pass me so I tried to resist in braking, but it wasn’t enough.

“So, when he passed me I tried to attack again, and we made a good battle – unfortunately, not for long, I wish I could do 20 more overtakes, but at the end it was not like this.

“Then, as soon as Marc was in front of me, I saw my pit board and I saw like ‘1.7 Fermin’ and the lap later it was 0.9 and I said ‘Okay, for sure I make third’.”

Bezzecchi was not specific about the issue he encountered but said it affected his concentration.

“Honestly, it was not a big issue but it was something that I lost a bit the concentration as soon as it happened,” he told MotoGP.com’s After the Flag post-race show.

“I made a small mistake, I made one corner with one gear [too high], and I lost immediately a couple of tenths.

“I tried to put myself again in a calm mode, but when you have Marc behind it’s difficult to keep relaxed.”

P3 “an incredible bounce-back”

Bezzecchi’s podium in Austria was the first rostrum result for Aprilia at the Red Bull Ring – a circuit it has notoriously struggled at in the past.

The Italian said that even Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola had warned him about the RS-GP’s past performances in Austria ahead of the weekend there.

“It was not easy here, I have to say that we struggled a bit more compared to Brno that was the previous race,” Bezzecchi told After the Flag.

“But, coming here, Massimo [Rivola] and all the crew, we were speaking and they said ‘This is a track where we’ve been struggling since we started so don’t expect too much.’

“I didn’t, but I have a hard head and when I want something I try my all. To be honest, on Friday it was difficult to accept the result because I felt that I could give more.

“Hopefully, we can continue in this way, working as hard as we can to be consistent and improve always a bit.”

The weekend started in difficulty for the Noale brand with both Bezzecchi and his factory Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin out of the top-10 on Friday, but at least for Bezzecchi there was a turnaround as the weekend progressed.

“I’m super-happy,” Bezzecchi said.

“It’s an incredible bounce-back after a difficult Friday afternoon, but we kept ourselves calm and we tried to work a lot to try to solve everything.

“Already on Saturday morning I felt immediately better and I was really positive on the bike and feeling always a little bit better lap-by-lap.

“The pole position was fantastic because I made a wonderful lap and, really, almost [no] mistakes, just something, but it’s normal.

“In the Sprint was a decent result – of course, when you start from pole position you always want more, it’s clear, but I knew I could struggle a bit more, but also it was something that could help us today and at the end it was like this.”