Marco Bezzecchi
Marco Bezzecchi squandered a potential victory in the Thailand Grand Prix Sprint on Saturday. Bezzecchi, who started on pole, had been battling Marc Marquez in the early stages.
Bezzecchi set the lap record during Friday’s timed practice session, and while he couldn’t go quite as fast in qualifying, he still outpaced Marquez by three-hundredths of a second.
The world champion took the lead at the start, but Bezzecchi wrestled it back. Just when it seemed as if he was going to start pulling away on lap two, he fell at turn eight.
Marco Bezzecchi crashes from the lead in the Buriram Sprint Race!
Can Bezzecchi handle the pressure of a MotoGP title fight?
The Aprilia rider had already crashed twice in the morning, including in Q2, but this was his first truly costly error of the season.
Massimo Rivola told his riders ‘the world championship is not just for today’
Speaking to TNT Sports before the race, Aprilia boss Massimo Rivola warned that the title would not be decided at the opening round and urged his riders to think long-term.
While Rivola recognised the importance of seizing opportunities, it seems Bezzecchi pushed too hard here. Marquez didn’t have the pace to escape Pedro Acosta, so the RS-GP26 likely would have pulled away eventually.
It has still been a highly encouraging start to the season for Aprilia, with Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez bagging a Sprint podium on Saturday and the three remaining riders placing in the top five.
Pedro Acosta scores his first MotoGP win in the Buriram Sprint Race!
Who was your rider of the Sprint Race at the 2026 Thailand Grand Prix?
“I hope that my riders think with a long-term vision, rather than give everything in one shot,” said Rivola. “The world championship is not just for today or tomorrow. We need to play clever.
“When we have the chance and the opportunity, we need to take it, and otherwise, if there’s no chance, we don’t have to take stupid risks.”
‘Marc Marquez ruffled his feathers’ – Neil Hodgson on Marc Marquez
Bezzecchi ended 2025 as the form rider on the grid, albeit helped by the enforced absence of Marquez. The Italian won the last two races of the year in Portugal and Valencia.
He’s making his 83rd premier-class start this weekend, but TNT’s Neil Hodgson is concerned that he continues to make mistakes in ‘maximum-pressure situations’.
Hodgson pointed out that Bezzecchi also faltered at the Indonesian GP last October when he slipped back from pole on the opening lap and tangled with Marquez.
- READ MORE: Marc Marquez instantly reacts to penalty for Pedro Acosta move in Thailand Grand Prix Sprint
He suspects that the veteran Spaniard unsettled Bezzecchi during Saturday’s race in Buriram.
“He obviously made that massive mistake and crashed into Marc Marquez,” said Hodgson. “We’ve seen him when he’s had an advantage before, it’s almost under these strange, maximum-pressure situations, he makes these mistakes. It’s his third crash today! Bizarre!
“I did not think it was going to happen, though. I thought he was going to control it from the front. But Marc ruffled his feathers, as he’s done so many times for the past 15 years.”
If Bezzecchi is to compete for the title this year, as some have predicted, then he urgently needs to disprove this narrative.
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