Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez is now just one weekend away from claiming a record-matching seventh MotoGP title.
The Ducati rider secured his 15th victory in the last 18 races after having to bide his time to pass Marco Bezzecchi. Outscoring his brother Alex by three points at the next race in Motegi will be enough to seal the deal, some six years on from his last triumph.
Marquez recovered well from crashing out of the lead of Saturday’s sprint and didn’t let it affect him on Sunday. He applied pressure at the start, before settling into his groove and forcing his Aprilia rival into a critical mistake.
Bezzecchi was ‘really good’ in his battle to hold the championship leader off in the early stages of the race on cold tyres, as they fought to bring them up to temperature. Marquez had a ‘critical’ weakness at Misano, but he still left with the most important trophy of the weekend.
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Marc Marquez says Marco Bezzecchi was ‘amazing’ in Misano battle
At the start of the weekend, Marquez looked ‘really nervous’ in Misano after struggling with the front end of his bike in qualifying. It’s similar to the sort of problems that teammate Francesco Bagnaia has faced all year, leading to poor results.
Currently, there’s no real need to push the limits, with both titles virtually sealed well in advance of the end of the campaign. Speaking after the race, Marquez found time to reserve praise for Bezzecchi, after their tactical battle on track.
“Today I found Marco to be amazing,” he said, according to the Italian edition of Motorsport.com. “He was at the level of my brother Alex in Barcelona, really top-notch. I got behind him, I pressed him to force him into a mistake, and when he did, I took the lead.
“I tried to keep him behind by doing fast laps, but he stayed there until the end and was going really fast. It was a very difficult race, even more so than last week’s in Barcelona, perhaps the toughest of the season.
“Even without overtaking, I think we were able to put on a good show, but it’s hard to overtake here, especially when you’re so close to the person in front of you. In the Sprint, I had to invent something in a strange place to pass Marco, but today it was a very tense race right to the end.”
Neil Hodgson suspects Aprilia told Marco Bezzecchi to accept one thing about Jorge Martin
Despite being the clear number one rider on current pace, there’s a strong chance that with time on his bike, reigning champion Jorge Martin will be able to match Bezzecchi soon.
Aprilia told Bezzecchi to accept one thing, according to the suspicions of Neil Hodgson on Saturday at Misano. He believes he was ordered to tow him in qualifying.
Despite only having one satellite team, Aprilia now look set to finish 2nd in the constructors’ standings. Even Trackhouse Racing have benefited from developments to the RS-GP25.
At the final six events of the campaign, there’s a strong chance that Aprilia will continue to contend for victory at most rounds. They will hope that Martin can join the party at the front, too.
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