He tried until the end, but against this Pecco Bagnaia it’s really hard to stay ahead: Marco Bezzecchi conquered the second position in the Sprint at Mugello, giving his home crowd a one-two Italian after putting in place a comeback from the third row. Qualifying on Saturday morning was not the ideal one, which forced him to start from behind, but with today’s podium he remains second in the world championship, four lengths behind Bagnaia.
“The day was positive, even if this morning I was a little annoyed because I thought I’d get something more from qualifying”, confessed Bezzecchi, who redeemed himself in the race. “But I couldn’t do a better lap than that, so seventh position was the best I could get. But I was confident because the pace was good and the key would be the start. Luckily I got a good start and closed the gap with the others, when the rain came I was able to gain some positions and get close to Pecco. Not enough, but still it was a good race.”
The Sprint gave satisfactions to Bez, who managed to prove solid even in complicated conditions: “It started raining almost immediately, at first I thought it was midges because I had nothing on my visor and I could only see on the windshield. Then this thing ramped up and I saw the others slow down a bit. I think it was easier for me than for Pecco because I had the reference, I was able to see the situation better and understand better what I had to do. At the beginning we went slower because the race bunched up a bit, but then in the end we went very fast because we managed the tires without wanting to”.
Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The long race will be another story, we will have to look up to understand if the weather will still be uncertain and the tires will certainly be fundamental: “Tomorrow will be a little different, it would be nice to have good races like this…and also because if I’m with Pecco it means I’m ahead. In general he was better than me just about everywhere, in the middle of the Sprint I was able to gain a few meters risking a little more than him, but he was still stronger and gained a little more margin. On the last lap I never thought of trying to attack Pecco, but I wasn’t close. I wanted to try sooner, but I was never able to make an attack because Pecco was braking a little harder than me and above all he was coming out much better than me from the last corner, so I always arrived a little far into Turn 1 and I couldn’t try an attack from so far because it would have been too dangerous.”
However, beating Bagnaia won’t be a simple feat, on the contrary. The Pecco-Desmosedici pairing seems truly unbeatable: “Pecco interprets very well the style that this bike wants…whether it’s mine, which was scary last year, or the current one. You have to try to get close to his style, but it’s not easy because everyone has his style. He knows her very well…you have to work and try to get closer and closer to him until you can try to beat him. Tomorrow he will try to win because in general he is stronger. I’ll try to do my best, if it’s going to be good like today, a hair worse that’s okay and a hair better that’s okay too”.
Finally, for the home race, a special helmet could not be missing, which Bez dedicates to the mustache bet for victory in the MotoGP: “My helmet is somewhat reminiscent of the famous victory bet. Since I had my team trim their mustaches at Le Mans, I decided to make a barber’s helmet, there are scissors, a razor, a sign, the fact that it’s closed on Mondays. I am from Romagna and the back part is dedicated to Emilia Romagna. It’s a dedication to all the people who have been affected by the bad weather, I have many friends who are unfortunately not having a good time and I hope they are happy to see this message.”
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