{"id":753296,"date":"2026-06-22T17:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753296\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:25:13","slug":"bezzecchi-sees-red-marquez-sees-an-eighth-motogp-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753296\/","title":{"rendered":"Bezzecchi sees red, M\u00e1rquez sees an eighth MotoGP crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> has had a horrible few weeks. The man who led every single lap of this year\u2019s first three grands prix \u2013 in Thailand, Brazil and the USA \u2013 scored just seven points from the last two \u2013 in Hungary and the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

The red mist of frustration that boiled over during the Brno<\/a> sprint had been simmering since Sunday at Balaton Park \u2013 taken out by his team-mate at the first corner, unable to train properly before Brno, struggling with bike and body in practice, qualifying and the sprint, during which he watched the factory Ducatis disappear into the distance and with them his world-championship advantage.<\/p>\n

A racer\u2019s red mist can be a terrible thing. Marco Simoncelli<\/a> once said, \u201cIn the race, you want to kill the other riders\u201d. The 2008 250cc world champion didn\u2019t mean it literally but he kind of did, because the emotions unleashed within riders while racing can be terrifyingly fierce.<\/p>\n

Bezzecchi is chilled most of the time \u2013 he\u2019s into reggae, and who can forget his zen meditation helmet design from Mugello<\/a> 2024? \u2013 but the red mist got the better of him on Saturday when he pushed and slapped a marshal who was trying to retrieve his crashed Aprilia<\/a> from the gravel trap.<\/p>\n

Marshals work for free and face not inconsiderable risks while doing their job. Sure, the marshal in question mistakenly opened the Aprilia\u2019s throttle while picking it up, which is what riled Bezzecchi, but give the guy a break. When marshals go to work in a gravel trap, they can never be sure there\u2019s not another fallen bike cartwheeling towards them. It\u2019s a very high-stress environment.<\/p>\n

Thus, while Bezzecchi\u2019s emotions were understandable, his actions were unacceptable. And he paid the price \u2013 a one-race ban, which may or may not play a role in the outcome of this year\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n

\"Lawson<\/p>\n

Lawson lobs at traffic cone at a marshal during the 1985 Belgian GP<\/p>\n

\n Motocourse\n <\/p>\n

Was the punishment appropriate? A footballer who strikes an official can expect a minimum six-game ban, while a Formula 1<\/a> driver who does the same would likely be sanctioned with a race or licence suspension.<\/p>\n

In 2002, British rider Guy Martin was banned from racing in Britain for slamming a laptop shut on the fingers of a BSB official. That ban led to Martin switching to a racing-on-the-roads career in Ireland and on the Isle of Man.<\/p>\n

Further back in time, motorcycle racers could get away with a lot more.<\/p>\n

Four-time MotoGP<\/a> king Eddie Lawson<\/a> hurled a traffic cone at a marshal after going straight at Spa-Francorchamps<\/a>\u2019 bus-stop chicane and dropping his factory Yamaha<\/a> during practice for the 1985 Belgian GP. The following year, Briton Alan Carter swung a punch at a marshal after crashing out of the British 250cc GP. Neither was punished.<\/p>\n

Bezzecchi\u2019s tough times at Balaton Park and Brno and Marc M\u00e1rquez<\/a>\u2019s grand prix double have transformed the situation at the top of the championship. Going into Hungary, M\u00e1rquez was 102 points behind the series leader; now the gap has shrunk to just 40 points, with 13 races to go.<\/p>\n

M\u00e1rquez\u2019s return to his best is another sensation, from a rider who has made performing miracles a habit. His 10th comeback since he broke his right arm in 2020 started steadily at Mugello, with a fifth and a seventh. The following weekend at anti-clockwise Balaton, he won both races, taking advantage of his stronger left arm and his go-left skills.<\/p>\n

\"M\u00e1rquez\u2019s<\/p>\n

M\u00e1rquez\u2019s 75th MotoGP victory puts him right into the title fight<\/p>\n

\n MotoGP\n <\/p>\n

Less was expected at clockwise Brno but he made it happen anyway. The 33-year-old looked destroyed after taking third in the sprint behind winner Pecco Bagnaia and pole-starter Ai Ogura<\/a>, so surely he would struggle over double the distance on Sunday? He did, but that didn\u2019t stop him.<\/p>\n

Fourth into the first corner, he was second by the end of the first lap, then shadowed team-mate Bagnaia, unable to get past, because his front tyre overheated every time got close enough to think about making a lunge. Finally, he held his breath and dived past at Turn 4 with five laps to go, then got his head down to stay ahead of Ogura, who had followed him past Bagnaia.<\/p>\n

The effort certainly hurt \u2013 when M\u00e1rquez lifted his visor during the slowdown lap he looked in agony, both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lack of power, a lack of muscle, so I\u2019m compensating with another part of my body,\u201d he said. \u201cSince I came back from injury my heart rate in races is higher than ever, but at home it\u2019s lower than ever, so that means I\u2019m compensating with other parts of my body for what I\u2019m missing in my right arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s even more demanding from the mental side than from the physical side, because of the way I have to approach the weekend. Fridays are super-difficult \u2013 slow down three laps, push one lap, slow down three, push one \u2013 so to find my concentration and take my reference points is super-demanding from the mental side, but it\u2019s the best way for me to get up on Saturday in a good way.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I never give up. In the last laps today I was suffering a lot \u2013 the bike was there but I was empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bezzecchi<\/p>\n

Bezzecchi had some explaining to do \u2013 he did apologise in person to the marshal he\u2019d struck<\/p>\n

Ogura \u2013 always lightning-fast with worn tyres \u2013 was still half a second behind going into the final Turn 13 and 14 esses but M\u00e1rquez thought the Trackhouse Aprilia<\/a> rider was closer, hence the big handful of throttle and his bike bucking in protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a small mistake in the exit of Turn 12, so I went in [to 13] a bit fast and opened the gas a lot, because I saw in Moto2 how they overtake there, so I said, \u2018Okay, this cannot happen to me\u2019, and I opened the gas more and lost the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not in his wildest dreams could M\u00e1rquez have expected to reduce his deficit to Bezzecchi by more than half in just two weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, one month and a half ago I was completely over. I was in hospital and more than 100 points behind. So now I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m 40 points behind the leader! We are in the game. Now I need to keep my feet on the ground because in Assen<\/a> I will need to survive, because it\u2019s a circuit where I usually struggle when I\u2019m fit, so I need to have extra tension there. And then Sachsenring<\/a> and then I hope and I believe that after the summer break I can come back in attack mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those last few words will strike fear into his rivals, at least those who haven\u2019t already seen the writing on the wall. M\u00e1rquez is maybe 85 to 90% fit and yet he\u2019s won three of the last four races. It\u2019s important to remember that this is extraordinary, because M\u00e1rquez does so many extraordinary things it\u2019s possible they start to look ordinary.<\/p>\n

\"Mir<\/p>\n

Mir \u2013 the only rider to use the soft rear \u2013 held off Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> for fifth<\/p>\n

\n Michelin\n <\/p>\n

Ogura was disappointed with the runner-up spot in both races, but he learned a lot in his first MotoGP races at the front. Bagnaia won the sprint but couldn\u2019t stop M\u00e1rquez and Ogura coming past on Saturday, because instead of the chatter he coped with in the sprint he had to deal with the rear floating around.<\/p>\n

VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio<\/a> spoiled his hopes of a Sunday podium when M\u00e1rquez came past him at Turn 3 on the first lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a mistake when Marc overtook me,\u201d said the Italian, who along with Ogura had had the fastest pace in practice. \u201cA lack of patience got me going early on the throttle and I lost the rear. I lost momentum into Turn 4 and then I lost momentum into Turn 5 and I lost a lot of places. That\u2019s where I ruined my race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Di Giannantonio fought brilliantly to make good his mistake. During the closing stages he was the fastest rider on track, establishing a new lap record on the final lap to take the chequered flag a tenth of a second behind third-placed Bagnaia. At half-distance, he had been 3.4 seconds adrift of his countryman.<\/p>\n

Bagnaia confirmed that he is on the road to redemption with his first victory of the year on Saturday and his fourth consecutive Sunday podium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Bezzecchi has had a horrible few weeks. The man who led every single lap of this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[361188,64,63,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-753296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-2026-czech-gp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753296","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=753296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}