Marco Bezzecchi explains cause of poor Thai MotoGP Sprint start

The Thai MotoGP Sprint saw Marco Bezzecchi get off to a poor start, spinning off the line and forcing him back to almost last.

The Aprilia Racing rider was 17th at the end of the first lap having started eighth; he eventually recovered to 12th, but blamed his poor initial launch on a dirty grid slot.

“I just had a problem with the grid position that was a bit dirty and I spin immediately,” Bezzecchi said.

“It was not only the spin that was the problem, it was that when I spin the bike went completely sideways to the left, so I had to roll off completely to avoid crashing and then I was last, which was the main issue today.”

Despite the poor start in the Sprint, Bezzecchi said he is actually more happy with his starts on the Aprilia than he ever was during his three years on the Ducati Desmosedici.

“For me, I feel better [than on the Ducati],” he said. “I was always struggling with the starts since I arrived in MotoGP, and through all the practice start sessions I have been improving and I’ve been quite good.

“It’s [the Sprint start] just a consequence of the dirt. It’s something that can happen, it’s already happened to most of the grid.

“So, no worries. Tomorrow it will happen maybe to someone else.”

The race after the start for Bezzecchi became one of recovering, and he was overall happy with his ride, although he eventually ran into issues with his tyres as a consequence from running in the pack.

“I made some good overtakes,” he said, but “as everyone knows, after more laps that you are behind other bikes, everything starts to become difficult with the temperature and the pressure of the tyres and everything.

“But [while] I had fresh tyres, I was able to make some good overtakes. The bike is working well.

“Of course, we still have to adjust something, but we have also the possibility to [look at] the data from the other guys, especially Ai [Ogura] that was very fast.”