This Sunday June 26, 2022, Marco Bezzecchi answered questions from journalists from the TT Circuit Assen at the end of the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Italian rookie left his mark by not making any mistakes despite the difficult conditions and even putting pressure on the Ducati official Francis Bagnaia : Magnificent !
As usual, we report here the words of Marco Bezzecchi without any formatting, even if it is translated from English.
Marco, you raced with a soft rear tire. Was it difficult to manage?
Marco Bezzecchi : " Yes, for me it was an incredible race. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect with the soft tire because we had worked well, but with the medium. I had done the distance of the race with the medium and I did not expect that the medium would not be good so since the qualification where I had been very fast, I thought that it was not possible that I'm so slow with the medium: maybe I was using the wrong tire, but with the soft tire I only did six laps. So I put the soft on and Matteo gave me a lot of confidence because I wasn't really sure. Even on the grill, I didn't know what to do, and he said "we'll put it on, don't worry, it'll be fine."
Then, when I saw Pecco ahead, I told myself that I was going to try to leave with him, because I didn't want to catch up with him, well if I could I would have tried, but the objective was to 'escape from the others behind. Yes, it was a fantastic feeling! »
How did you feel when you saw the clash between Fabio and Aleix?
« Regarding Fabio's fall, he tried to pass Aleix. In this corner, I got overtaken by Jack, and when you try to close on the driver who is passing you, it's a tricky corner. I think that to overtake, Fabio was perhaps arriving too quickly, and when he got closer (to Aleix), to avoid touching him he perhaps braked more. But honestly, I don't know. Anyway, when I saw them fall… “OK, I’m trying to leave” (laughs). »
How did you manage your pace when the raindrops came?
« When the rain comes, it's normally a situation that I like. Idalio taught me that as long as the rain didn't hit hard, it didn't rain. I saw that Pecco wasn't slowing down much and thought maybe this was a chance to really take that podium home. So when the rain started to fall, I went into overdrive. My mother is the wind and my father is the rain (laughs). »
This is the first podium for Valentino Rossi's team and the VR 46 flag has been given to you...
« Yes it's good ! I think the stewards wanted to give the flag to Pecco, but he was with the fans. So I arrived and took the flag (laughs). It was fantastic because Vale and the whole Academy did an incredible job. I think without Vale, for sure, I won't be able to be in the world championship because he took me when I was 14 or 15 years old. Getting here is fantastic, so it's completely for him, and for the Academy riders who have always supported us. And this year I think they took a really big step forward. »
It is perhaps one of the most complicated circuits in the championship. You've never been on the podium in Moto3, you've never been on the podium in Moto2, so how did you manage to get on the podium in MotoGP with just one day of dry riding?
« I don’t know (laughs)! Honestly, I was happy to come here because it's a track that I like: I've always been close to the podium, but never on the podium. But when I left home, I didn't expect to get on the podium. There's something I said to my girlfriend: I was looking at my house and I said to her "where could I put my first MotoGP trophy?" ". This is incredible, because this happened after a lot of races. It's like in Mugello: I had a dream (laughs) and in this dream I was inside myself and I was qualifying behind Pecco. I passed him on the right, I took pole position, then I heard the fans screaming. And then, in qualifying, I almost took pole position by getting the first row. And here, it’s fantastic! Honestly I felt good and maybe the key to my race was the medium rear tire had no grip so we put the soft on for the race and the bike was a different bike. So I just tried not to stress the tire too much, be smart with the power maps, be gentle with the throttles especially on the right side, then tried to follow Pecco and escape from Maverick. »
Last year, Casey Stoner came to Europe and said in an interview that he saw things you were doing in Moto2 that no one else was doing before. Did he tell you about it and what do you think he saw?
« I met Casey in Valencia last year but didn't really talk to him much except to tell him I was happy to meet him and ask how he was. So I only spoke about that with him but I read this interview and it gave me great pleasure, to see what he thought of me. But honestly, I don't know what he saw. I hope it was good skills. »
When it started to fall, did you immediately think that this could be an opportunity to catch Pecco?
« When I saw the rain, I didn't have the tear off problem but I saw it on the bike's screen. I saw that it was very light and tried to think that it wasn't raining. I saw Pecco getting bigger and bigger and I tried to stay focused to attack as much as I could. »
In your opinion, will this first podium in MotoGP be a turning point for you?
« Of course, it's very, very important because it's something I dreamed of achieving, and I didn't expect to achieve it so soon. But in the end, I'm still a rookie, so my mentality is like this: when I come back for the second part of the season, I don't want to expect to always have a good race like that, because there will of course be some circuits where I will struggle more and circuits where I will struggle less. So the best way to continue the work is to try to do the best possible in each race: when there is a possibility like today, you have to try to use it to obtain the best result, but when I don't We won't have this possibility, we must still try to make the most of this day, whether it is P10, P12 or another podium. Of course, another podium is better, that's clear, but I think being a rookie it's normal to go up and down, because some circuits are more difficult than others, and on some circuits you have to manage the tires more than on others. Of course, this weekend, doing the whole race at the front, I would say I learned more than at the Sachsenring, but the turning point comes when you start to learn many, many more things. »
Results of the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix MotoGP at TT Assen:
Credit classification : MotoGP.com
