Marco Bezzecchi "never felt good" at French MotoGP as points lead vanishes

Marco Bezzecchi admits he “never felt good” across the entire French Grand Prix weekend, as his MotoGP points lead has been reduced to just one.

The championship leader came into the Le Mans weekend 11 points clear in the standings of his Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin.

But a double victory for the Spaniard has seen this shrink to just a single point heading to next week’s Catalan Grand Prix.

Marco Bezzecchi led for most of Sunday’s French Grand Prix, but was ultimately overhauled by Martin in the closing stages.

The Italian admits he “never felt good” at any point of the Le Mans weekend and lacked confidence on the front-end of his RS-GP.

“Jorge, since Friday, felt immediately good with the bike, and he never really complained too much,” Bezzecchi said.

“He was always stronger and stronger day by day without making any particular things on the bike.

“So, it was a kind of weekend that you could see from the outside that he was feeling good, and I tried to improve during the weekend, but I was the opposite from Jorge.

“I never felt good; even when I was improving, I never got the confidence on the front that I wanted, and this made me use a lot the tyre to compensate.

“The result is that in the last seven, eight laps, I was dropping the pace, and it was not enough.”

Bezzecchi added that he “didn’t expect to lead” for as long as he did, and ultimately didn’t put up a fight with Martin as he felt he was going to get through anyway.

“Very, very happy with the result, because it wasn’t an easy race,” he noted.

“It was super long, very difficult. When I started, and I was in front, honestly, I expected to be passed pretty soon because I knew my pace was not the best.

“I didn’t expect to lead for so many laps, but at the end, when I felt the opportunity, I tried to give my all to make a good pace, the maximum that I had, and when I saw Jorge passing Pedro [Acosta] I knew he was super strong, especially at the end of the race.

“And I also felt worse and worse lap by lap.

“I knew he was coming, I didn’t want to risk too much to force and maybe just get passed one lap later.

“But I gave my all, I’m very satisfied. From a tough weekend, we go away from a very good sprint and a very good GP.”