Marco Bezzecchi has pinpointed one area of his riding that he’s lacking confidence with at the Brazilian MotoGP.
The Italian was 20th in Practice on Friday, which he blamed on bike problems. That seemed to be somewhat justified on Saturday morning when he qualified second, despite crashing at turn four in FP2, behind Fabio Di Giannantonio, both of them having come through Q1.
But in the delayed 15-lap Sprint, Bezzecchi lacked the pace for the podium, and made a mistake to allow his Aprilia Racing teammate, Jorge Martin, through into third place on lap six – a mistake from which he could not recover.
Considering where he was on Friday, Bezzecchi felt it was a decent recovery on Saturday, but knows he has margin to improve for Sunday as he still lacks confidence in braking.
“It was a decent day seeing from where I was coming from yesterday,” Bezzecchi told MotoGP.com after the Brazil Sprint.
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“It’s not bad.
“Of course, I wanted a bit more in the Sprint, but I knew my pace wasn’t [good enough]. I missed a bit of confidence still in some places of the track, especially in a couple of brakings, and I’m always a bit on the limit.
“In fact, I made a couple of mistakes and Jorge [Martin] passed me.
“But overall it was not too bad, considering my feeling the pace at the end especially was not too bad.
“I was improving in the last couple of laps and it’s positive at the end. Let’s try to work hard for the race tomorrow.”
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Bezzecchi’s fourth place means he now sits two points behind Pedro Acosta in the MotoGP riders’ standings, after the KTM rider scored only one point for ninth place on Saturday in Brazil.
Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix will see Bezzecchi defend a three-race win streak that stretches back to last November’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
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