Marco Bezzecchi: Leg muscle “full of blood”, “went to check on Jorge Martin”

After a near-perfect home weekend of pole, Sprint victory and runner-up to Marc Marquez in the San Marino MotoGP, Marco Bezzecchi’s Motegi hopes suffered a blow with ninth in qualifying

“During the second time-attack, something happened that we still need to analyse, and we were unable to set a good lap time or match Friday’s performance,” Bezzecchi said.

“Starting from ninth makes everything harder, especially on a track like this.”

But the biggest impact came, literally, from Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin, who was launched into the side of Bezzecchi’s bike at Turn 1 of the Sprint race.

Starting from just 17th, the reigning world champion lost control after lunging for the inside taking both Aprilia riders out.

Bezzecchi was left with injuries to his right leg, plus hands, back and neck.

“The worst part was the leg. The muscle in the thigh is completely full of blood. And also the knee, to bend the leg was very difficult,” said the Italian.

Martin was in a worse condition, grasping his right shoulder for what would later be confirmed as a displaced fracture.

“I went immediately to check how he was after the crash, because I felt pain but realised quite quickly that I didn't have anything broken,” Bezzecchi said on Sunday.

“I saw Jorge keeping his hand on his shoulder, so I went to check, and he was in a lot of pain. So I didn't want to disturb him.”

Despite what happened, the Italian insisted there was no issue between the team-mates.

“I never had any problem with Jorge. Of course, as I said to him, the mistake for me was a bit too much, considering where he started compared to me. I'm sure that he realised immediately.

“But we never had anything wrong. And when he came back after the medical checks, it was very cool to speak a bit with him. He apologised, but to be honest, everything was okay [between us] already.”

If Bezzecchi had been more seriously injured, it would have ended his hopes of catching Francesco Bagnaia for third in the world championship, as well as threatening Aprilia’s position as best of the rest behind Ducati in the constructors’.

Fortunately, he was able to return on Sunday and salvage a sore fourth place in the grand prix.

“I made a decent race. I'm not happy, but it was the maximum that I could do considering everything,” Bezzecchi said.

Bezzecchi is now 32 points behind double race winner Bagnaia heading into this weekend’s Indonesian round.

Meanwhile, Martin is returning to Europe for surgery on the broken collarbone, his fourth hospitalisation of an injury-ruined year.