Marco Bezzecchi “in trouble with my body” in Germany MotoGP practice

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi admits he was “in trouble with my body” during the time attack phase of Practice at the MotoGP German Grand Prix.

The former championship leader suffered a massive crash during the Dutch Grand Prix, which left him battered and bruised but without any serious injuries.

He comes to Germany below full fitness, but managed to get through Friday in seventh overall and secure a direct place in Q2.

However, he was 0.602s off the best pace set by Ducati’s Marc Marquez.

Marco Bezzecchi says his body was struggling when he had to push for a time attack, while he is also lacking in consistency.

“Well, especially the time attack, I've been suffering a bit,” he said.

“It's true that during the sessions I was able to find some good lap times, but the consistency is still not the best.

“But also the final time attacks after all the sessions, I arrived in that moment a bit in trouble with my body.

“But yeah, overall, the target of the day that was trying to reach the Q2, we made it.

“So for this I'm very happy. And also, the feeling with the bike is not too bad.

“Maybe it's missing more from my side than from the bike. Hopefully, tomorrow I can try to improve a little bit.”

Bezzecchi remarked that it is harder now to get back into action following a big crash because of the condensed calendar, but doesn’t believe he is suffering mentally to refocus.

“Unfortunately, sometimes we crash very hard, and with this calendar we have many races, so we need to try to immediately bounce back on the bike and have the speed and try to save as much as we can,” he added.

“So yeah, it's tough, but at the end it’s… it's not too bad mentally.

“It's more difficult physically, for sure.

“For me at the moment it's like this. Maybe in the past I've been through other times where mentally also it was a bit more difficult, but for me at the moment the biggest problem is physical.”

Facing qualifying, the sprint and the grand prix in the space of 24 hours from tomorrow morning, Bezzecchi admits he “will have to suffer”.

However, he has no plans to prioritise the grand prix over other sessions.

“Well, all three things are important,” he said of the race weekend.

“The qualifying, for sure, is the first very important thing, because at the end you make one qualifying for two races, so it will be important.

“And then just try to take at home the maximum that I can.

“We know we will have to suffer, but at the end it's like this. I will not focus only on the GP or on the sprint.

“I will focus every time I go on the bike, and we'll see what we can bring at home.”