Marco Bezzecchi admits: “I couldn’t really imagine this”

Marco Bezzecchi admits even he has been surprised by the scale of Aprilia's turnaround after a nightmare pre-season.

New to the RS-GP, Bezzecchi was left as Aprilia’s sole factory rider after multiple injuries for team-mate and reigning champion Jorge Martin.

Just twelfth in the world championship after the opening six rounds, Bezzecchi shot to glory with victory at Silverstone and, after improvements in qualifying, has been a constant podium threat from Assen onwards.

Since the Dutch round, Bezzecchi has been the next highest scorer after champion elect Marc Marquez, sealing his strongest weekend yet at Misano with a Sprint victory and close second in the Grand Prix.

“Seeing the start of the season, it was difficult to imagine something like this of course, because Jorge [Martin] was injured,” Bezzecchi said. 

“So, to be honest, no, I couldn't really imagine this. But when things started to go well, everything changed, fortunately.”

“Not thinking” about Bagnaia

Bezzecchi arrives in Japan this weekend just eight points behind close friend Francesco Bagnaia in the fight for third overall. If he succeeds, it would mark Aprilia’s best-ever MotoGP championship finish, surpassing Aleix Espargaro’s fourth in 2022.

But Bezzecchi insists he is not fixated on the standings.

“To be completely honest, I didn't really look at the standings at the moment. Of course, it's something that at the end of the weekend, you always take a look to the standings. But my mentality, my main target is to try to continue in this way.

“We've been competitive through many weekends and I want to keep this momentum going and hopefully then I can still speak about the battle for the third place closer to the end of the year.”

Bezzecchi targets “last quarter” gains after Marc Marquez battle

After narrowly missing out on victory to Marc Marquez last time out, Bezzecchi focused on late-race tyre management at the Misano test.

The Aprilia rider claimed pole and capitalised on Marquez’s Sprint crash to win on Saturday, before pushing the Ducati star all the way in Sunday’s Grand Prix, crossing the finish line just 0.568s behind.

“It looks like that at the end of the race, the last quarter, when the tyre is quite tired, we still miss something to be able to fight until the end,” Bezzecchi said.

“I was good, I was strong, but it wasn't enough to win. So we have to work on this area and of course continue working on the stability, on the time attack, on everything that we are sometimes suffering.”

In terms of where he can find that extra performance, the British MotoGP winner said:

“A little bit everywhere. And for sure with the riding, I can make a step and try to be better.

“Normally I'm good managing the tyre, but this is also a different bike compared to what I was using [Ducati] in the previous seasons.

“So, I have to understand very well the signals that the bike is giving me to make me understand that the tyre is going down.

“Then for sure the electronics, it’s a bit of everything. It's always a combination on the bike.

Bezzecchi also re-tried a different chassis before finishing Monday’s test third fastest, behind Pedro Acosta’s KTM and Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati.