A visor tear-off was responsible for Marco Bezzecchi’s slow start to the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix sprint on Saturday, setting the tone for a race that quickly unravelled.
For the third time in four MotoGP weekends, the championship leader failed to score a point on Saturday, despite qualifying a strong fourth behind the leading Ducatis and LCR’s Johann Zarco.
When the race began, the factory Aprilia rider struggled to get off the line and dropped outside the top 10, before slipping further down the order to 16th place.
Footage released by MotoGP showed that Alex Marquez had removed a visor tear-off on the way to the starting grid, with the plastic film getting dislodged under Bezzecchi’s Aprilia and compromising his start.
“I had a huge spin because I had a tear-off under my bike,” he explained. “At that moment, I didn’t know. Afterwards, we saw a video, and it looks like Alex removed the tear-off in the last corner.
“I was immediately behind and the tear-off stayed in my front fairing till I stopped in my position [for the start]. It stayed there for a while and then it was under my bike.”
Asked if MotoGP needed to introduce a rule to combat such issues, Bezzecchi joked riders should “roll off like motocross” before explaining why tear-offs remain necessary.
“Of course, close to the start, it’s always difficult,” he said. “But it’s also something that sometimes we need. Because when you go at 300kph, you can hit something with the visor.“
Despite the RS-GP proving competitive on Saturday in the hands of Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez, Bezzecchi struggled to make inroads in dry conditions and was only able to recover to 13th by lap 7.
The outcome of the race was ultimately decided by the late-race shower, which forced the entire pack to switch to their wet-weather bikes. Bezzecchi came into the pits a lap after race winner Marc Marquez, but crashed out at Turn 2 on his out-lap while struggling to bring the brakes up to temperature.
While his closest title challengers Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta also failed to score points, it was a costly mistake for the Italian, with Ducati’s Marquez and Fabio di Giannantonio closing the gap to him after finishing first and fifth respectively.
“I didn’t have enough temperature on the brakes,” he said. “I tried to warm the brake in the pitlane, I tried to warm the brake into the braking of the T1.
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
“Then, when I went into T2, it wasn’t ready anyway and I immediately lost the front. It was not too quick but it was enough to crash.”
He added: “I always feel very bad when I lose a race or when I crash. In a race like this, you never feel very good. Also, if you are not fighting for the top places.
“At the end, if you really care about what you do, if this doesn’t go as you would love, you feel bad. Fortunately, I’m fighting at this moment for a decent place. It hurts but I can’t do anything other than concentrate for tomorrow.”
Bezzecchi is currently on a five-race Sunday-winning streak stretching back to last year’s Portuguese GP.
His team-mate Jorge Martin, who won the previous sprint in Austin, also retired from Saturday, but ironically after his front brakes began glowing due to overheating.
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