Marco Bezzecchi had a podium in hand in the Sprint race of the French MotoGP Grand Prix. However, when he was in second behind leader Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati), he suffered a crash that led to his retirement.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider admitted that he still has some issues with braking and turning, although he assures that his Ducati is at a good level in Le Mans: ‘There is still a bit there, I’m trying to compensate with my riding. But sometimes it’s difficult, and when you’re pushing hard and have to ride to work around the problems, it’s not easy. But this weekend the base is not bad. Matteo and the team did a wonderful job with the bike. The bike works well, I just made a small mistake that caused me to crash‘.
The start was also not easy for Bezzecchi, as he himself mentioned: ‘On the first lap, he was much, much better than me, especially in turns 6, 7, and 8, and he opened a small gap. For me, the end of braking and the middle of the turn, with the new tire, I still have a lot of difficulties making the bike turn, so he always beat me‘.
The Italian was able to pick up the pace later on, but realizing that he was having to take too many risks, he played it safer until the mistake that led to his retirement: ‘Then, on the second and third laps I was really fast and recovered a bit, but I was too much on the limit to try to get close to him. So I had to slow down a bit because I was starting to make some mistakes. So I just tried to keep looking at him, following him, until I made a mistake‘.
