“Too slow” Marco Bezzecchi baffled by lack of pace in Japanese GP sprint

Marco Bezzecchi says he has no answer as to why he was “one second too slow” in the Japanese Grand Prix sprint, having recorded strong pace on the same medium tyre in practice.

The Italian was one of the only two riders on the grid to opt for Michelin’s medium rear compound, the other being Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller, in Saturday’s half-distance race at Motegi.

While this call was always going to leave him vulnerable in the opening laps, his pace didn’t improve significantly even in the closing stages, leaving him regretting his choice after the race.

Even as three of his rivals were eliminated at the start in a crash triggered by Alex Marquez, Bezzecchi went backwards through the race, finishing a distant sixth aboard the factory Aprilia.

With Ducati’s Marc Marquez winning the race and Jorge Martin finishing third despite encountering late issues on the soft rear, Bezzecchi conceded more ground to his rivals in the title fight.

Speaking afterwards, the 27-year-old said the call to race on the medium was a calculated decision, even though he ultimately conceded that soft would have been the better choice.

“On paper, for myself, it was the right choice,” he said. “Then obviously with the result, it’s not the right choice. But on paper, it was good because, in the end, I could do it.

“I had to survive the first two and a half laps. But after that, I was super confident. So, it was a decision that was not taken because I was slow and I said, ‘OK, let’s risk for the medium, maybe I can make it better’. We thought about it and it was not bad.
But at the end it’s like this, so let’s move on.”

Evaluating the medium tyres in FP2 on Saturday morning, Bezzecchi set multiple laps in the 1m43s bracket. His very last effort, a 1m43.321s on 16-lap old rear, propelled him to the top of the order in the session, ahead of team-mate Martin and KTM’s Pedro Acosta.

But he failed to replicate that pace in the sprint, breaching the 1m44s barrier just once during the 12 laps. His best sprint time of 1m43.873s was five tenths slower than his FP2 time, while his team-mate Martin was able to lap within a tenth of his best time from the same session.

“Yesterday, I saw that my pace was good, but not as I wanted,” Bezzecchi explained. “I was also a little bit on the limit with the temperature from the rear tyre already yesterday. So we decided to try to work on the medium this morning, to see if I could have at least the two options.

“And with the medium this morning I was feeling good, I was riding quite fast. So, because of this pace and because of the less risk with the temperature, I tried to make this decision. But at the end, today I was riding a bit too slow, one second too slow.”

Asked if there was an explanation for the difference in his performance between final practice and the sprint, he replied: “I cannot explain it. I don’t want to say anything wrong too early. So I prefer to check everything.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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