{"id":675246,"date":"2026-05-16T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675246\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:00:09","slug":"marco-bezzecchi-keeps-motogp-title-lead-despite-tough-catalunya-sprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675246\/","title":{"rendered":"Marco Bezzecchi keeps MotoGP title lead despite \u201ctough\u201d Catalunya Sprint"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marco Bezzecchi\u2019s MotoGP title lead looked in jeopardy after the Aprilia rider was left twelfth on the grid after a qualifying crash, then made slow progress in the early laps of the Catalunya Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>Team-mate and title riva<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/973236\/jorge-martin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">l Jorge Martin<\/a> was several places ahead, after his own qualifying mistake, putting the Spaniard on course to erase the slim one-point deficit to Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n<p>However, Martin crashed &#8211; for the fourth time this weekend &#8211; on lap 3, ensuring Bezzecchi\u2019s lead would continue for at least another day.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian looked set to score decent points when he moved into sixth during the middle stages, but lost pace and was demoted to ninth place and the final point by the chequered flag.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gng_1315359_hires_1600x900.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Marco Bezzecchi, 2026 Catalan MotoGP Sprint.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Marco Bezzecchi, 2026 Catalan MotoGP Sprint.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started well, gained a couple of places at the beginning and was sixth,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> told MotoGP.com.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut after, unfortunately, I lost quite quickly the positions again with Pecco, then Franky, then Ogura, then also Bastianini.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFortunately, I was able to pass Bastianini back. But it was a tough day for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi, who confirmed he wasn\u2019t injured in the qualifying fall, said he needs to make a general improvement in all areas ahead of the grand prix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mistake in qualifying ruined a bit the day but, in the Sprint, honestly I felt not in the best way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just have to try to improve for tomorrow, a little bit everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully we can have a decent end to the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi said both the soft and medium rear tyre are viable for the grand prix.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Bezzecchi\u2019s MotoGP title lead looked in jeopardy after the Aprilia rider was left twelfth on the grid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[18009,10669,64,63,10732,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-675246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aprilia","tag-aprilia-racing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-marco-bezzecchi","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}