Realist Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) celebrated sixth place in the Sepang qualifying session

Marco Bezzecchi didn’t need to be asked twice. The Italian, who has never secured a podium finish at Sepang, was consistently among the fastest riders in the premier class from the very first laps on the Sepang Circuit. Only Marc Márquez lapped the tropical circuit in Kuala Lumpur faster on Friday morning. The gap, however, was remarkable – he was almost half a second off the World Championship leader. On top of that, KTM rider Pedro Acosta had clocked exactly the same lap time, down to the thousandth of a second.

The one-hour qualifying session followed a similar pattern, though on paper it was not quite as successful. Behind Fabio Di Giannantonio, but ahead of Marc Marquez, the number 72 rider remained at the top. When riders pulled out all the stops on soft tyres, Marco Bezzecchi dropped down to sixth place, but was never in any real danger of missing out on a place in Q2. When the chequered flag fell, Bezzecchi was able to celebrate a partial success, not least because the gap to Marc Márquez had not increased, remaining at 0.47 seconds.

As a reminder: in 2025, the Aprilia works rider lost almost a second to the leader, missed out on Q2, started from 14th and finished an unnoticed 11th. An experience that still gnaws at Bezzecchi, as it turned out. “If we compare this with last year, then I have to be extremely happy. But either way, the start to the season has been positive in that respect; it went very solidly. We’ve taken a clear step forward,” said Bezzecchi.

He continued: “Even though it looks as though Marc is a small step ahead, and Alex is very fast too, my pace overall looks good. I’ve certainly left a few tenths on the track, but I can see where I lost them and hope I can keep improving.”

The Italian also addressed Aprilia’s supposed weakness at Sepang. “It’s true that Sepang hasn’t been one of the best circuits for us in the past, but things are looking good now. That’s certainly not just because Aprilia has improved dramatically, but we’ve closed the gap.”

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31.10.2026 - 01:35

Bezzecchi also offered a plausible explanation as to why the RS-GP isn’t dominant on the predominantly flowing circuit. “It’s much less to do with the layout than with the level of grip. With such low grip, we find it harder to make the most of the bike’s strengths.”

Auffällig: Neue Aerodynamik-Bauteile im Bereich der Schwinge

Foto: Gold and Goose

As a measure to increase downforce, Marco Bezzecchi rode in Sepang for the first time with a newly developed aerodynamic package around the rear axle. When asked about the innovation, the third-placed rider in the World Championship grinned: “All I’ll say is – it looks really good.”

The situation ahead of Saturday’s MotoGP Sprint. Bezzecchi sits in third place in the World Championship standings. He trails his injured but still competing team-mate Jorge Martín by 40 points, and MotoGP leader Marc Márquez by 50 points.