Marco Bezzecchi put a nightmare Saturday at the Thai MotoGP season opener behind him to become the first Aprilia rider to win three premier-class grands prix in a row.
The Aprilia star took pole position between three Saturday crashes, his last mistake also the costliest, while leading early in the Sprint.
But Bezzecchi bounced back in perfect style by dominating the grand prix from start to finish.
“After yesterday, it was important to reset and bounce back in the race,” Bezzecchi told MotoGP’s Matt Birt.
“Yesterday, maybe I was just asking too much, because in the morning I was fast and made a mistake in Turn 3 because I wanted to turn the bike in anyway.
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“I wasn’t maybe thinking enough, and these kinds of small mistakes remove a bit of confidence.
“I think that the crash in qualifying was the one I understand better, because I was pushing hard.
“Then in the Sprint, maybe I got a bit too nervous. I tried to cut too much of the corner. Looking at the images, I thought I touched a white line, but now I think I didn’t.
“I just tried to carry a lot of corner speed and this made me crash.”
Bezzecchi made no such mistakes on Sunday, where his main ‘opposition’ was arguably keeping ‘critical’ tyre wear under control, in a race that saw a dramatic flat tyre exit for reigning champion Marc Marquez.
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“I knew my pace was good, so if I could start in a good way and stay a bit calmer, it was possible to build a small gap at the beginning. Then I was able to manage a bit that gap.
“It wasn’t easy because the wear of the tyre was critical. But we worked it well so the whole team did a wonderful job and I can’t thank them enough.”
Bezzecchi was the first of four Aprilia riders in the top five, with only KTM’s Pedro Acosta breaking a perfect RS-GP sweep. The best Ducati was VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio in sixth.
“For sure the guys made a wonderful job this winter, but at the end it’s just the first race so we must stay calm, focused, keep our head down and try to work always in the best way possible,” Bezzecchi said.
“We know that we will struggle at some point. It’s normal. Everyone does. So let’s approach race by race, trying to stay with this mood that is super positive.
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“I can’t wait to go to Brazil with the Brazilian vibe! I’m asking to Franky from last summer about the vibes, the music and everything so I’m very happy to go there.”
Bezzecchi will head to Brazil holding second place in the MotoGP World Championship standings, seven points behind Sprint winner and grand prix runner-up Acosta.
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