Collision with Acosta left Bezzecchi trembling: damage had an impact

– MotoGP serial winner Marco Bezzecchi had only one tricky moment on his way to victory at the US Grand Prix in Austin. After the start, the Aprilia rider slotted into second place behind Pedro Acosta’s KTM.

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In Turn 11, the Spaniard made a small mistake, missed the apex, and was carried out onto the curbs. Bezzecchi dove into the gap on the inside. As they were side-by-side accelerating onto the long back straight, a side-on collision occurred.

“Pedro was in front of me, and I wanted to try to get ahead,” Bezzecchi describes, “because the front tire always plays a decisive role here – you have to keep it fresh, let’s say.”

“So in Turn 11 he braked very late, me too, but a bit earlier than him, and we both went wide, but he was wider than me. So I thought to myself: Okay, I’ll try to overtake him at the corner exit.”

“It was a difficult episode because the wind in that corner was very strong. I saw that Pedro went wide. I also went a bit wide. I tried to overtake him at the corner exit.”

“When I tucked my head back behind the fairing, I was so close to him that I touched him. With the ride-height device and everything, it was very difficult to avoid contact. I don’t know if I damaged his bike too. I hope not.”

Both stayed on their bikes during this contact and accelerated down the back straight. Acosta lost the lead in this situation, but he also speaks of a racing incident.

“Yes, certainly not a nice way to start a race, but that’s just racing,” the Spaniard comments. “The problem is that I just have to play my cards, and one of them was to always be at the front and push from the first lap.”

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“It’s true that at that braking point with the [full] tank I might have pushed too much, went wide, and then it wasn’t easy. Like Marco said, with the wind, when you have a wheelie and try to change lines.”

“Yes, that’s racing. Luckily we can look at the scene again now and say that everything turned out quite well.” Bezzecchi’s Aprilia suffered significantly more damage in the contact than Acosta’s KTM.

On the RS-GP, the aero elements at the rear broke off. Did that have noticeable effects while riding? “Afterwards, the bike was strange under braking because it moved a lot and I couldn’t really put much pressure on,” says Bezzecchi.

“So yes, very lucky to come out of that contact with him unscathed. But in the end, I still tried to stay super focused, and it was a good race.” The Italian did not give up the lead again and celebrated his fifth consecutive start-to-finish victory.

In the history of the Motorcycle World Championship, Bezzecchi is only the eighth rider to have won five Grands Prix in a row. The others are Giacomo Agostini, Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, Mike Hailwood, John Surtees, Mick Doohan, and Geoff Duke.

With 121 consecutive laps led, Bezzecchi has set a new record in the modern MotoGP era, surpassing Jorge Lorenzo’s 2015 record (103 laps led). After three Grands Prix, Bezzecchi leads the World Championship by four points over his Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin an.

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