Marco Bezzecchi “always missing something” at Hungary MotoGP

MotoGP championship leader Marco Bezzecchi says he has been “always missing something” across the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

The factory Aprilia rider had a scrappy qualifying on Saturday morning at Balaton Park, which left him sixth on the grid.

A good start in the 13-lap sprint moved him up to third, where he remained to the chequered flag to extend his points lead to 20 after team-mate Jorge Martin finished sixth.

But Marco Bezzecchi was 2.7s off the lead at the finish and never looked like a threat to challenge second-placed Pedro Acosta.

“They both are super quick,” he said of sprint winner Marc Marquez and Acosta.

“They brake strong, they turn very quick and very tight. They are good in all the areas of the track.”

He added: “Everything wasn’t working, but I tried my best to achieve the maximum that I could.

“It’s true that on Saturdays I’ve been struggling, but here I’ve also been struggling on Friday, because the speed was not too bad but I was always missing something, and the quickest guys, like Marc, Pedro, Fermin [Aldeguer], Pecco [Bagnaia], [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, they have something more.

“But gave my all this sprint to try to take out the best I could. I took many risks as well, but fortunately it was OK.”

Balaton Park has been a solid track for Aprilia previously, though even last year it wasn’t able to challenge for victory.

But Bezzecchi doesn’t believe the stop-and-go layout is to blame, and instead thinks he simply needs to be better at adapting to the changing grip situation.

“It’s true that the conditions this week have been quite different from last year,” he said.

“The grip in general from the track has always been less, and if you see the lap times, they are quite slower compared to last year in general - not only in the sprint, but also in the free practices, in the qualifying.

“So, it’s difficult to find consistency; it’s difficult to find a condition that can improve, or at least be the same, every session.

“In fact, in this first couple of laps in the sprint I was struggling, and it felt like I was on ice.

“So, I don’t think it’s a matter of it being a stop-and-go track.

“It’s more a matter of trying to adapt better to this situation where the conditions are changing.”