Marco Bezzecchi says Barcelona sprint struggles not linked to qualifying crash

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Marco Bezzecchi says his poor performance in the Catalan Grand Prix was not down to any lingering effects from his qualifying crash, insisting he is fully fit.

The factory Aprilia rider could only muster a single point in the half-distance race on  Saturday after passing the Tech3 KTM of Enea Bastianini for ninth on the final lap.

Starting 12th on the grid, Bezzecchi climbed to seventh in the early laps but struggled to maintain the same pace for the rest. He looked set to finish outside the points after dropping to 10th, but repassed Bastianini into Turn 1 at the start of the lap to secure the final point.

This marked Bezzecchi’s worst result of the season so far, having not been classified lower than any race he had finished across the opening five weekends.

The Italian suffered a big fall at Turn 2 in qualifying and was seen barrel rolling through the gravel, raising concerns about his fitness level on a weekend where his team-mate Jorge Martin has also crashed four times.

But when asked how he was feeling physically following the sprint, the championship leader replied: “No, I'm okay.”

Instead, the 27-year-old pointed to a lack of confidence in his Aprilia RS-GP for his lacklustre performance, with a poor starting position only added to his woes.

“Yesterday was a positive day for me in terms of feeling overall and in terms of pace, but today, I've been struggling a bit during the sprint,” he admitted.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing