Marco Bezzecchi’s penalty fear for Australian MotoGP: ‘It looks easy, but it’s not’

MotoGP Australian Grand Prix sprint winner Marco Bezzecchi admits concern for his double long lap penalty coming for Sunday’s race as the loop ‘looks easy, but it’s not’.

The factory Aprilia rider was hit with a double long lap penalty for Sunday’s grand prix at Phillip Island for a collision with Marc Marquez in Indonesia two weeks ago.

Marco Bezzecchi has spent the weekend practicing going through the long lap lane on the outside of Turn 4 and is on course to lose at least two seconds per visit on Sunday.

Speaking after his sprint win from second on the grid on Saturday, Bezzecchi admits the long lap loop at Phillip Island is harder than it looks.

“It will be tough for sure because I tried the long lap many times this weekend,” he told TNT Sport.

“It looks easier, but it’s not, because it’s super tight and it’s in a very tricky place, because corner four is tricky even when you don’t have to do the long lap.

“So, I try my best to lose as little time as I can and try to bring home the best result. I will be happy if I do my best. So, let’s try it.”

Bezzecchi riding with painkillers to sprint win

Bezzecchi struck a seagull as he began the warm-up lap, which left a stricken bird stuck to the front of his Aprilia.

But he says the biggest issue he faced was a lack of front-end feeling on his RS-GP in the early stages, with the Italian trailing Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez until lap 10 of 13.

“I’m very, very happy,” he said of his third sprint win of 2025.

“It was a tough beginning because Raul was incredibly fast, and I was struggling a bit with the front tyre at the beginning.

“I lost the front a couple of times, and also when I was able to catch Raul, I made a mistake and took a wobble in braking at Turn 10.

“So, I lost a lot of ground. Fortunately, I was managing the tyres well, so I tried to push again and catch him. And fortunately, I was able to ride pretty fast. So, very happy with the performance.”

Bezzecchi has been struggling with back pain following the crash with Marquez at Mandalika, and admits he raced with painkillers on Saturday.

“Now I have painkillers for the sprint because I wanted to be safe to perform in the best way possible,” he said.

“Of course, I’m struggling a bit, considering that this track is super demanding on the back because of the long corners.

“It’s going a bit worse than I expected, but now I have to try to make the last effort physically for tomorrow. So, I try to recover as much as I can this afternoon and be ready for tomorrow.”