Marco Bezzecchi on Pedro Acosta: “Bloody hell, where on earth did you come from?”

Marco Bezzecchi secured a solid third place in Sunday’s MotoGP race at MotorLand Aragon. The Italian rider from Adria finished just under three seconds behind the dominant Marc Marquez at the finish line. Immediately after the start, Bezzecchi skilfully countered the eventual winner, Marc Marquez, at Turn 1, as Marquez’s electronic Right-Height-Device system had not been deactivated before Turn 1.

The top three were not short of spectacular moments – particularly in the early stages. One of the highlights came when Bezzecchi engaged in a wheel-to-wheel acceleration duel on the straight against Marquez, who had previously squeezed past on the inside of the chicane. “I could already hear Marc’s bike behind me before Turn 15. We then battled it out on the straight; the slipstream worked for a bit and then faded again. But Marc was unbeatable today, thanks to his experience and his speed here.”

There was more excitement in store for Bezzecchi straight away: just as he was battling with MM93 in the braking zone before the final corner, Acosta suddenly darted past the Italian on the outside too. Bezzecchi said: “Perhaps I would have come off second best over the distance anyway. But I would have liked to have battled a bit more against Acosta.” And “Bez” then showed his sense of humour – commenting on the Acosta incident in the cool-down room to the Red Bull-KTM rider: “Bloody hell, where on earth did you come from?”

Reflecting on the weekend in Aragon as a whole, Bezzecchi said: “I’m very pleased! It was a tough but wonderful weekend. I’ve finished on the podium here for the first time, on a track I’ve actually always loved. I rode really well myself, too. We worked really well as a team and secured pole position too. The pace wasn’t perfect, but I fought as hard as I possibly could to get on the podium here.”

Bezzecchi now sits third in the World Championship standings, five points behind Marc Marquez. At the same time, ‘Bez’ has closed the gap on his team-mate Jorge Martin after two more third-place finishes. The gap stands at 24 points ahead of his home race at Misano.

Topic of the week

Ferrari row with Hamilton and Leclerc: Team principal Vasseur must now step up

Ferrari came away empty-handed at the Dutch Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, Charles Leclerc fifth. Afterwards, both drivers were angry, and team principal Fred Vasseur found himself having to explain the situation.

Mathias Brunner

Read more