Marco Bezzecchi admits he made “a bad mistake” on the first lap of the Argentina MotoGP race which took him out of points contention.
Bezzecchi and Aprilia were expecting to be strong around a circuit where the Italian won two years ago, but the potential never materialised throughout the weekend.
The Rimini native struggled in qualifying and as a result was attempting to make progress down into the first corner in Sunday’s race, but an overly ambitious move saw him make contact with the rear tyre of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
While the Frenchman was able to continue running, albeit finishing down in 14th, Bezzecchi’s race ended in the gravel after the incident, which he has since taken full responsibility for.
“It was my mistake – I braked too late,” Bezzecchi said to Crash.net. “I managed to miss Franco Morbidelli, but unfortunately, I hit Fabio Quartararo’s rear tyre.
“So a bad mistake by me. I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to Fabio. I’ve already apologised to his team.”
“We had the pace to battle for the good positions,” Bezzecchi continued.
“We still need to improve in qualifying, and that will be my goal for the next GP.
“I also felt good on the bike in the warm-up session, and I expected to be able to ride a good race, but the mistake on the first corner changed my plans.”
Fabio Quartararo: ‘not much to say’ about Marco Bezzecchi crash
Quartararo admitted the incident was “unfortunate” but that his Yamaha machinery did not have the pace to keep up with the front runners regardless of the incident.
“There’s not much to say,” commented Quartararo. “The touch between Bezzecchi and me in the first corner was unfortunate. I went wide, I was in last place, and also our pace was not super good all weekend.”
“I could have maybe been a few positions higher, because starting the race like this, you pretty much keep your position. But it was a really tough weekend overall. Let’s see if we can do a bit better at the next GP.”
Bezzecchi was not penalised for the incident by the stewards after the race.
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