Marco Bezzecchi, the nightmare is behind him: his hopes for Silverstone
Marco Bezzecchi dominated the first part of the MotoGP season, only to then endure several extremely unlucky weekends marked by mechanical failures, crashes, disqualifications, and injuries. Having since been overtaken at the top of the standings by Jorge Martin, as well as by Ai Ogura and Marc Marquez, the rider from Romagna will be at Silverstone this coming weekend following his crashes at Assen and the Sachsenring. And, as he has already stated, he can’t wait to get back on the track and get back in the saddle of his Aprilia.
“First of all, I’ll have to undergo a medical checkup; they still need to give me the green light to race,” Bezzecchi said on Aprilia’s official channels. “But I’m really happy to be back, after a summer break that was very different from what I imagined. I can’t wait to get back on the RS-GP26. I’m really eager to race; I know I’m not 100% yet, but I really hope I’ll be able to feel good.”
The darkest moment came right at the Sachsenring, where, just over ten minutes before the end of Q2, Bezzecchi lost control of his Aprilia in Turn 7 at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, ending up in the gravel and rolling several times before coming to a stop after being thrown from the bike. The rider from Rimini got back on his feet and was escorted by a marshal on a scooter back to the pits, but subsequent medical exams confirmed the fears: a comminuted clavicle fracture requiring surgery. A bitter ending, coming just two weeks after his crash at Assen, where he had lost control of his bike on the third lap of the race, veering off the track at nearly 200 all’ora, fortunately without any physical consequences.
Bezzecchi’s rough patch stands in stark contrast to his brilliant start to the season, during which he opened the championship with three consecutive Grand Prix wins, later adding a victory at Mugello. The last few weekends before the summer break, however, had yielded just 13 points in the standings, thanks to a third-place finish in the Sprint race in Hungary and a fourth-place finish in the Sprint race at Assen, with retirements in both Grand Prix races. In the Czech Republic, moreover, after a crash in the Sprint race, he was also disqualified from the Grand Prix due to an altercation with a track marshal.
While Bezzecchi took one blow after another, Marc Marquez took advantage of the situation to make a powerful comeback in the standings. The Catalan rider on the factory Ducati closed out the Sachsenring weekend with a dominant sweep—pole position, victory in the Sprint, and victory in Sunday’s Grand Prix—bringing his total to 190 points, just 18 points behind leader Martin and 4 points behind Ogura. “Five races ago we were 103 points behind; now we’re 18 points behind,” Marquez pointed out on the sidelines of the podium ceremony. As of the start of the Silverstone race, the standings show Martin in the lead with 208 points, followed by Ogura with 194, Marquez with 190, and Bezzecchi with 186.
Marquez himself, despite their on-track rivalry, had expressed solidarity with the Aprilia rider after his crash in qualifying at the Sachsenring, though he didn’t resist taking an indirect dig at Valentino Rossi: “We all wish Bezzecchi the best, because I already said in Indonesia that it’s not fair to put pressure on him. I hope Marco recovers as soon as possible, and to you I say that karma doesn’t exist. I’ve been hearing references to this word since 2015, and since then I’ve won five world championships.”
Bezzecchi thus arrives at Silverstone burdened by a standings situation that has become more complicated, but also with the knowledge that he has already won on this track: last year, right here at the British circuit, the rider from Romagna triumphed in the Sunday Grand Prix, treating himself to one of the season’s greatest moments of satisfaction. This precedent fuels hopes for a quick comeback, provided his physical condition holds up and the medical checkup gives the expected green light.
