Marco Bezzecchi isn’t entirely to blame for his recent collapse in the MotoGP title race. The erstwhile championship leader hasn’t finished a Grand Prix since he won at Mugello back in May.
The four races since have featured two DNFs and two DNSs. He was banned at Brno for hitting a marshal, and then he had to withdraw from the German GP through injury after a qualifying crash.
Bezzecchi was 21 points clear at the top of the standings when he lined up on the Hungarian Grand Prix grid, only for Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin to take him out at the first corner. Martin’s loss of control also ended the races of Raul Fernandez (another Aprilia rider) and Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer.
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Carlo Pernat says Jorge Martin’s friendly fire in Hungary damaged Marco Bezzecchi relationship
If Bezzecchi doesn’t manage to regain top spot from here – he’s now 22 behind Martin – then the start at Balaton Park may be seen as a crucial turning point.
In addition to killing his on-track momentum, veteran rider manager Carlo Pernat says the incident shattered the harmony at Aprilia. The riders are no longer communicating, and the two sides of the garage are becoming divided.
The Aprilia factory team won five of the first seven races, but they have only scored one podium in the last four.
“Before, the team was like a champagne bubble – everything was going well,” Pernat told Speedweek. “Since Hungary, everything has gone wrong.
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“They’re exchanging hostile glances, the riders aren’t speaking to each other, the race engineers aren’t speaking to each other. The mood is bad now. It’s like the vase has broken.”
Bezzecchi and Martin have scored 65 points combined since Mugello, while Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura has notched 102 and Marc Marquez has blown them out of the water with 119.
They have both leapfrogged Bezzecchi in the standings, and Martin doesn’t expect his lead to last much longer without mechanical changes after the summer break.
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Bezzecchi and Martin developed an intense rivalry during their Moto3 days in 2018, but there was no sign of any animosity when they linked up in the premier class.
After Hungary, Rivola originally criticised Martin for a mistake a ‘world champion shouldn’t make’, though he later rowed back on those remarks.
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