Marco Bezzecchi has publicly apologised to his Aprilia Racing team after crashing out of the lead in the Thai MotoGP Sprint.
Bezzecchi started from pole position for the 13-lap sprint race in Thailand, having topped every MotoGP session (bar Q1) of the weekend until that point.
He led early on, having been able to pass Marc Marquez – who went on to finish second behind Pedro Acosta – between turns five and six, but then crashed at turn nine, ending his chances.
“I’m sorry for this mistake of course,” Bezzecchi said afterwards, speaking to MotoGP.com.
“I was feeling good, but the track during the race was a little bit worse compared to the other conditions of the [weekend].
“Anyway, this doesn’t make any difference. I made a small mistake, I touched a little bit the white line on the inside to try to close the line, and I lost a bit the front. Then I tried to save it, I stayed there, but once I touched the gas I lost it completely.
“Small mistake but a big consequence.
“I’m sorry for this mistake, I’m sorry to the team, but at the end this is racing; I have to push, I have to try the maximum that I can and I will do the same tomorrow.”
Bezzecchi said he felt he could break away from Marquez if he had enough time in the lead, the having exchanged positions multiple times in the opening lap-and-a-half.
“I knew that Marc [Marquez] was going to make this kind of strategy because at the end maybe I was slightly faster in terms of pace but he’s always super-strong in the battles and I expected him to be strong in braking,” he said.
“But I knew also that if I was able to stay a bit more in front maybe I could make a small gap. Anyway, while I was trying to do this I made a mistake, so we try again tomorrow.”
The Italian added that his lack of laps in the Sprint will also be a hindrance in the grand prix tomorrow.
“Now everyone is super-fast,” he said. “Today it was important to try to make some laps to understand how the wear of the tyre affects the bike, but I couldn’t.
“So, the only thing I can try to do is go in the box, work in the best way possible, and then prepare everything for tomorrow and we will see.”
