Victory in the Thailand MotoGP race was of added importance to Marco Bezzecchi after he crashed from the lead in the Sprint on Saturday.

Bezzecchi’s Sprint crash came after setting the fastest time in all free practice sessions and taking pole position, but it also came while battling for the lead early on with Marc Marquez.

The full-distance MotoGP race on Sunday was immediately different as Bezzecchi quickly pulled a lead of over half-a-second before the end of the first lap. By the end, he was over five seconds clear of second place to take his third win in succession.

Bezzecchi said it was “important” to rebound on Sunday, but also that he was confident in his pace before the start.

“After yesterday it was important to try to reset and try to bounce back in the race,” Bezzecchi told MotoGP.com’s After the Flag show.

“Of course, I knew my pace was good and I knew that if I was going to start in a good way, trying to stay a bit more calm, it was possible to put a small gap at the beginning.

“Fortunately, my strategy was good and I was able to manage a bit the gap. 

“It wasn’t easy because the wear of the tyre was critical, but we worked well so the whole team made a wonderful job and can’t thank them enough.”

Bezzecchi added that Saturday’s Sprint mistake was simply a result of trying to squeeze more performance out of himself and the RS-GP than was realistic.

“Yesterday was a day where I was maybe just asking too much because in the morning I was fast and I made a mistake in turn three,” Bezzecchi said. “I wanted to put the bike in anyway, I felt good with the bike, so I said ‘Okay, I try’. But I wasn’t thinking maybe enough and this kind of small mistakes remove to you a bit of confidence. 

“I think the crash in qualifying was the only one that, let’s say, I understand better, because when you are pushing for a time attack you are allowed to make this kind of mistake, let’s say. 

“Also, the one in the Sprint, maybe I got a bit too nervous, I tried to cut too much the corner.

“Re-looking at the images, I thought I touched the white line but I think I didn’t really touch it, I was super-close but I just tried to carry a lot of corner speed and this made me crash. 

“So, it wasn’t easy but fortunately I was good.”

By the end of the race, two riders had retired with tyre issues. Marc Marquez’s was explained by Davide Tardozzi afterwards as being caused by damage to the rear wheel rim when he hit the kerb on the outside of turn four; but Joan Mir’s was simply wear-related. 

Bezzecchi, too, had visibly significant wear in the centre of his rear tyre at the end. Afterwards, in the post-race press conference, Bezzecchi explained that his strategy at the beginning of the race was to push to extend a gap before starting to save the tyre.

“I had to manage with the tyre,” he said. “The longer race was going to be super-tough, so the mindset has to be different from the Sprint. 

“But my strategy was to start as strong as I could to be leading the first lap at least and try to put a gap, and then try to manage. 

“It wasn’t easy because in this track if you warm the tyre then it’s super-tough to get the temperature going low again, almost impossible. 

“So, to push without forcing too much on the rear wasn’t easy, but fortunately everything was alright so the strategy was good.”