Aprilia fighter Bezzecchi (3rd): “I think I did my job pretty well”

Starting from fourth on the grid, Marco Bezzecchi had put himself in the perfect position to put his painful crash at the San Marino GP – on his home turf – behind him. He had already succeeded in Phase 1 of the Sprint race. Although Bezzecchi also benefited from Pedro Acosta’s mistake, his flawless ride was rewarded with third place.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Bezzecchi did even better – because even without any mistakes from Acosta, he once again secured the final spot on the podium. The Aprilia rider got off to a strong start and looked hungry for victory in the first two laps. But after KTM rider Acosta took the lead, Bezzecchi had to ease off and slot in behind Jorge Martin.

After the chequered flag, Bezzecchi breathed a audible sigh of relief. His comments: “It was by no means an easy weekend. It took until this morning, when I finally got the right feel in the warm-up. I also adapted even better to the bike.”

The World Championship third-place rider continued: “I wanted to carry that into the race, but despite a great start, I had problems with the front end in the early stages. Pedro then overtook me. As the race went on, though, my pace kept getting better and better. I closed the gap on Jorge again, and in the end I did a pretty good job,” grinned the exhausted Italian.

Indeed – in the final stages, Bezzecchi was on the verge of taking second place. With three laps to go, the gap had closed completely. When Bezzecchi narrowly missed his team-mate whilst braking for Turn 1, the number 72 decided to let it go.

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Marco Bezzecchi: “This result was so important”

Bezzecchi, who finished behind Martin and ahead of Ogura in the strong Aprilia sandwich, concluded: “This result was so important – for the whole team, too. The entire Aprilia team has worked extremely hard for this, and I hope we can carry this momentum into the next races.”

On the downside, it’s worth noting that Bezzecchi lost further ground to the World Championship leader Martin in both races – though the number 72 did manage to make up ground on ‘Marc Marquez’. Bezzecchi took five points off the world champion, after all. He is now 30 points behind ‘MM93’ and 42 points behind the ‘Martinator’. Perfect for Aprilia: following a strong performance at the Austrian Grand Prix, the Noale-based manufacturer is back on top of the manufacturers’ standings.