Marco Bezzecchi Portuguese MotoGP Sprint win hopes dashed by “strongest” Alex Marquez

Marco Bezzecchi hoped he could challenge for victory in the Portuguese MotoGP Sprint, but seeing the strength of Alex Marquez on lap three changed his perspective.

Bezzecchi put in an impressive Q2 performance on Saturday morning to take pole position, and made a good enough start in the Sprint to make the holeshot.

Leading the first two laps, the Aprilia Racing rider seemed in a good position, and even when he was passed by Pedro Acosta he felt he was in good enough shape to challenge for victory.

When Alex Marquez made his move at the beginning of the third lap, though, Bezzecchi’s expectations for the 12-lap race changed.

“Starting from [pole] and being also on the top of the group for one or two laps, my hopes were to try to fight at least for the victory,” Marco Bezzecchi told MotoGP.com after the Sprint.

“But when Pedro [Acosta] passed me I thought ‘Okay, I can try to stay with him and have a good battle’. 

“The problem was that when Alex [Marquez] came I immediately understood that he was the strongest one. 

“So, I started to struggle a bit more to stay with them and lap-by-lap I was a bit more on the limit.

“I expected to feel a little bit better; maybe I could do third anyway, feeling good and try to be in the mix, but I was missing something. 

“So, we have to try to understand better with the data.

“Anyway, apart from this, it was a fantastic day because qualifying was super-good and complaining for a third place means that it’s good.”

Bezzecchi said that he was hoping Acosta and Marquez would battle more strongly to bring him back into contention.

“I was hoping for a bigger battle,” he said, “just to try to put myself in the mix. Just because it’s true that I was missing some speed, so the only way to try to close the gap was because of them fighting. 

“But then, unfortunately for me, Alex was able to put a small gap and, at the end I was catching again Pedro but anyway it was not enough.”

Looking to Sunday’s MotoGP race, Bezzecchi was positive about his chances based on the feeling he has with the bike.

“Always here, the race is tough because the drop of the tyre is difficult to manage,” he said.

“But it’s also a very physical track. So, many things to take care of. 

“I’m positive for tomorrow because the sensations anyway are good. We try to analyse everything now in the box and tomorrow make another good job.”