Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi says he is struggling at the 2025 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix because every time he uses new tyres “it’s as if they weren’t there”.

The Italian came into the Sepang weekend on a streak of back-to-back sprints and the clear favourite to maintain late-season pressure on Ducati.

However, Marco Bezzecchi failed to get directly into Q2 on Friday in Malaysia and could only manage 14th on the grid. It marked his first Q2 miss since the Aragon Grand Prix in early June.

Bezzecchi managed to recover some ground in the sprint to get to seventh at the chequered flag, but was promoted a place due to Fermin Aldeguer’s time penalty.

Reflecting on his sprint, Bezzecchi admits he knew the Sepang weekend would be a struggle, and has blamed that on the Aprilia not being able to switch on new tyres.

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“It’s a shame I missed my qualifying lap,” he told Sky Italy.

“But I’m not complaining. I knew we’d struggle here, and we’re working on a lot of things that will be useful in the future.

“All weekend, when I put on new tyres, it’s as if they weren’t there. I can’t find that extra grip that everyone has at the start of the race.

“But I think I can do a little better in the [main] race.”

He added later, when speaking to the English media: “Well, not the best one, but many improvements, especially in the sprint.

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“So, in the end, almost satisfied. Of course, coming from Phillip Island and Mandalika where we were pretty fast, here we’ve been struggling a bit more.

“But we’ve also been understanding a lot of things that will help us for the future. So, the sprint of today was not too bad.

“I could recover many places and I enjoyed the battle, with many overtakes. To grab some points starting from 14th was not too bad.”

With Pecco Bagnaia winning the 10-lap sprint on Saturday at Sepang, he is now level on points in the battle for third with Bezzecchi.

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