Bezzecchi sees red, Márquez sees an eighth MotoGP crown

Marco Bezzecchi has had a horrible few weeks. The man who led every single lap of this year’s first three grands prix – in Thailand, Brazil and the USA – scored just seven points from the last two – in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The red mist of frustration that boiled over during the Brno sprint had been simmering since Sunday at Balaton Park – taken out by his team-mate at the first corner, unable to train properly before Brno, struggling with bike and body in practice, qualifying and the sprint, during which he watched the factory Ducatis disappear into the distance and with them his world-championship advantage.

A racer’s red mist can be a terrible thing. Marco Simoncelli once said, “In the race, you want to kill the other riders”. The 2008 250cc world champion didn’t mean it literally but he kind of did, because the emotions unleashed within riders while racing can be terrifyingly fierce.

Bezzecchi is chilled most of the time – he’s into reggae, and who can forget his zen meditation helmet design from Mugello 2024? – but the red mist got the better of him on Saturday when he pushed and slapped a marshal who was trying to retrieve his crashed Aprilia from the gravel trap.

Marshals work for free and face not inconsiderable risks while doing their job. Sure, the marshal in question mistakenly opened the Aprilia’s throttle while picking it up, which is what riled Bezzecchi, but give the guy a break. When marshals go to work in a gravel trap, they can never be sure there’s not another fallen bike cartwheeling towards them. It’s a very high-stress environment.

Thus, while Bezzecchi’s emotions were understandable, his actions were unacceptable. And he paid the price – a one-race ban, which may or may not play a role in the outcome of this year’s championship.

Was the punishment appropriate? A footballer who strikes an official can expect a minimum six-game ban, while a Formula 1 driver who does the same would likely be sanctioned with a race or licence suspension.

In 2002, British rider Guy Martin was banned from racing in Britain for slamming a laptop shut on the fingers of a BSB official. That ban led to Martin switching to a racing-on-the-roads career in Ireland and on the Isle of Man.

Further back in time, motorcycle racers could get away with a lot more.

Four-time MotoGP king Eddie Lawson hurled a traffic cone at a marshal after going straight at Spa-Francorchamps’ bus-stop chicane and dropping his factory Yamaha during practice for the 1985 Belgian GP. The following year, Briton Alan Carter swung a punch at a marshal after crashing out of the British 250cc GP. Neither was punished.

Bezzecchi’s tough times at Balaton Park and Brno and Marc Márquez’s grand prix double have transformed the situation at the top of the championship. Going into Hungary, Márquez was 102 points behind the series leader; now the gap has shrunk to just 40 points, with 13 races to go.

Márquez’s return to his best is another sensation, from a rider who has made performing miracles a habit. His 10th comeback since he broke his right arm in 2020 started steadily at Mugello, with a fifth and a seventh. The following weekend at anti-clockwise Balaton, he won both races, taking advantage of his stronger left arm and his go-left skills.

Less was expected at clockwise Brno but he made it happen anyway. The 33-year-old looked destroyed after taking third in the sprint behind winner Pecco Bagnaia and pole-starter Ai Ogura, so surely he would struggle over double the distance on Sunday? He did, but that didn’t stop him.

Fourth into the first corner, he was second by the end of the first lap, then shadowed team-mate Bagnaia, unable to get past, because his front tyre overheated every time got close enough to think about making a lunge. Finally, he held his breath and dived past at Turn 4 with five laps to go, then got his head down to stay ahead of Ogura, who had followed him past Bagnaia.

The effort certainly hurt – when Márquez lifted his visor during the slowdown lap he looked in agony, both physically and mentally.

“I have a lack of power, a lack of muscle, so I’m compensating with another part of my body,” he said. “Since I came back from injury my heart rate in races is higher than ever, but at home it’s lower than ever, so that means I’m compensating with other parts of my body for what I’m missing in my right arm.

“Now it’s even more demanding from the mental side than from the physical side, because of the way I have to approach the weekend. Fridays are super-difficult – slow down three laps, push one lap, slow down three, push one – so to find my concentration and take my reference points is super-demanding from the mental side, but it’s the best way for me to get up on Saturday in a good way.

“You know I never give up. In the last laps today I was suffering a lot – the bike was there but I was empty.”

Ogura – always lightning-fast with worn tyres – was still half a second behind going into the final Turn 13 and 14 esses but Márquez thought the Trackhouse Aprilia rider was closer, hence the big handful of throttle and his bike bucking in protest.

“I made a small mistake in the exit of Turn 12, so I went in [to 13] a bit fast and opened the gas a lot, because I saw in Moto2 how they overtake there, so I said, ‘Okay, this cannot happen to me’, and I opened the gas more and lost the rear.”

Not in his wildest dreams could Márquez have expected to reduce his deficit to Bezzecchi by more than half in just two weekends.

“I mean, one month and a half ago I was completely over. I was in hospital and more than 100 points behind. So now I don’t know why I’m 40 points behind the leader! We are in the game. Now I need to keep my feet on the ground because in Assen I will need to survive, because it’s a circuit where I usually struggle when I’m fit, so I need to have extra tension there. And then Sachsenring and then I hope and I believe that after the summer break I can come back in attack mode.”

Those last few words will strike fear into his rivals, at least those who haven’t already seen the writing on the wall. Márquez is maybe 85 to 90% fit and yet he’s won three of the last four races. It’s important to remember that this is extraordinary, because Márquez does so many extraordinary things it’s possible they start to look ordinary.

Ogura was disappointed with the runner-up spot in both races, but he learned a lot in his first MotoGP races at the front. Bagnaia won the sprint but couldn’t stop Márquez and Ogura coming past on Saturday, because instead of the chatter he coped with in the sprint he had to deal with the rear floating around.

VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio spoiled his hopes of a Sunday podium when Márquez came past him at Turn 3 on the first lap.

“I made a mistake when Marc overtook me,” said the Italian, who along with Ogura had had the fastest pace in practice. “A lack of patience got me going early on the throttle and I lost the rear. I lost momentum into Turn 4 and then I lost momentum into Turn 5 and I lost a lot of places. That’s where I ruined my race.”

Di Giannantonio fought brilliantly to make good his mistake. During the closing stages he was the fastest rider on track, establishing a new lap record on the final lap to take the chequered flag a tenth of a second behind third-placed Bagnaia. At half-distance, he had been 3.4 seconds adrift of his countryman.

Bagnaia confirmed that he is on the road to redemption with his first victory of the year on Saturday and his fourth consecutive Sunday podium.