Valentino Rossi’s Mooney VR46 Racing stuck another landmark objective from its proverbial ‘bucket list’ as Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini landed the team’s first-ever double top three MotoGP result in the Argentina Sprint Race.
In what has been a strong start to VR46 Racing second season in MotoGP, Bezzecchi collected his second podium in as many races after muscling his way through a closely-matched field to finish on the tail of KTM’s winner Brad Binder.
“It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “The battling at the beginning was fantastic but it [the race win] was lost at the beginning when I was battling with the Aprilias.
“I started being aggressive because I knew I could win. In the end I tried to get past Brad but I was only close on the last lap. I tried but he is a very hard on the brakes so I couldn’t do a relaxing overtake.”
Marini, meanwhile, clicked off his first top three finish in MotoGP after following his team-mate up the order, even if the Sprint Race celebration format - a medal ceremony with no raised 1-2-3 steps - means he will still need to repeat the feat in a full length MotoGP feature race to physically step onto a podium.
“I am really happy about the result, especially after Portimao. I made a fantastic start and it is so important in the sprint to be at the front in the beginning.
“I hope to fight in the main race but I don’t think I have the pace to fight for this kind of result, but the Sprint is good information for myself to try and analyse with my team because we need 0.2-0.3secs more.”
