Marco Bezzecchi had sinking feeling looking at pit board in Marc Marquez battle

After leading the opening ten laps of Sunday’s Hungarian MotoGP, Marco Bezzecchi might have been expected to feel frustrated with third place.

Instead, the Aprilia rider left Balaton Park satisfied, having delivered a podium finish despite on a weekend when he was lacking outright pace.

“On Friday we started with many problems, so it was nice to again make a good Saturday,” Bezzecchi said.

“I think the key for this track, to fight for the podium, was the first row in qualifying. Because my pace was not that good compared to Austria. I was quite a bit slower."

Indeed, Bezzecchi went in to the grand prix having been ranked just 15th in warm-up.

"[On Sunday morning] I was so nervous because I knew I didn’t have enough pace to make a good race," he told TNT Sport.

"I was angry with anyone! It was difficult, for my team especially, to manage me.

"Fortunately, everything was alright and the race was fantastic."

Writing on the wall against Marc Marquez for Marco Bezzecchi

After snatching the holeshot and surviving contact with Marquez in the opening corners, Bezzecchi knew the writing was on the wall once the Ducati Lenovo star’s medium rear tyre came up to temperature.

Marquez reeled in the leaders with a string of 1m 37s laps, passing Franco Morbidelli on lap five before hunting down Bezzecchi.

The Italian, running the soft rear tyre to aid stability under braking, knew he could not match the Spaniard’s rhythm.

“I was in trouble a couple of laps before [the Marquez pass] because I realised that on the left side, my rear tyre was already done,” Bezzecchi explained.

“The problem is that I needed the soft rear to stop the bike better. When I saw on the pit board that Marc overtook Franky, I had 0.8, and I knew he could catch me quite easily.

“So in a couple of laps he was behind me, and I just tried to fight as much as I could, but I knew that he was stronger.”

Indeed, Bezzecchi successfully retaliated twice before the eight-time world champion finally made the move stick, then immediately showed his true pace with a race-best of 1m37.699s.

While braced for Marquez, Bezzecchi admitted he was caught out by the speed of KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who surged past with ten laps to go.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect to lose the position also to Pedro. But when he passed me, he was also really, really strong. So at the end, I just tried to take this podium.”

Bezzecchi, who could not dip below the 1m 38s, was the slowest of the top three for 15 of the final 16 laps - but kept a safe 3.5s buffer over Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin in fourth.

The Italian remains fourth in the MotoGP World Championship, as the top non-Ducati rider, but is now just 31 points behind Francesco Bagnaia.