Doubts for Marco Bezzecchi’s Silverstone MotoGP endurance despite Sprint podium

Sunday’s 20-lap Silverstone MotoGP is unlikely to see a repeat of Marco Bezzecchi’s Sprint podium on Saturday, the Italian thinks.

Bezzecchi’s Sprint started with him making up places before dropping back to fifth before the end of the first lap.

But he went forwards again in the second half of the race as the Ducatis that had passed him – those of Marc Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio – started to suffer with tyre wear.

The Aprilia Racing rider landed in third place, his first podium finish in either MotoGP format since he was third in the Sprint at Balaton Park in May.

But on Sunday he thinks it will be unlikely for him to repeat such a performance, such is his physical condition after the injuries he sustained at the German MotoGP before the summer break.

“Obviously I hope, but honestly I don’t think so,” said Marco Bezzecchi of the possibility for him to repeat his Saturday performance over Sunday’s 20 laps.

“It will be hard to wake up feeling like today. Can be already a good result if I wake up tomorrow and I feel similar to now, that is pretty bad but at least the same. 

“But tomorrow, with the longer distance – hopefully Jorge [Martin] will start slower because then, if the pace can be a little bit slower, I can manage for a couple of laps more. Then I try to survive.”

Bezzecchi added that he was al

ready “destroyed” after qualifying, having woken up on Saturday morning feeling worse than Friday.

“I felt super-tired,” he said of his Sprint. “I started to struggle a lot, four laps to the end I really felt a drop in my physical performance. It was tough. 

“Didn’t expect it at all because this morning when I woke up I felt much worse than yesterday and after qualifying I felt destroyed – the qualifying really destroyed me, to make that lap I really had to put a kind of effort that, it was tough. 

“I was pretty worried before the Sprint and, apart from the adrenaline that I had in the first couple of laps, after that the pain and the tiredness was [worse], but I tried to not give up and it was good.”

Bezzecchi’s injuries cover the left side of his body, where he is still missing strength, but the impact is also felt on his right side, he explained: “In the left part, [the pain is] overall everywhere because I still don’t have enough power in my upper body on the left because, of course I trained with the shoulder but I couldn’t really train like nothing happened. 

“The leg, I barely trained the last couple of days before coming here, so the pain to bend completely the knee is a lot and I start to feel a strange sensation on my foot also when I was shifting down. 

“Also the right side because, to compensate, I need to [use the right side more], but fortunately the right side is still good.”

Saturday’s Sprint was characterised by high tyre wear with the soft-compound rear tyre. It’s expected that everyone will choose the medium rear tyre for Sunday’s race, which Bezzecchi hopes could help him.

“I hope [the medium will help], it’s what I really hope with all my heart, because with the soft it was tough and was a harder soft compared to last year,” he said.

“The medium I tried this morning and was not too bad, but let’s say that if it can help, it can give me one or two laps, not more.”