Bezzecchi felt “desperate” when he saw Argentina GP would be wet

Bezzecchi made history at the end of Sunday’s rain-affected grand prix at Rio Hondo as he scored his maiden victory in MotoGP and the first for series legend Valentino Rossi’s team.

Both in their sophomore seasons in the premier class, Bezzecchi dominated the Argentina GP from the moment he took the lead on lap one from second on the grid, ultimately taking the chequered flag over four seconds clear of the field.

Bezzecchi says he woke up on Sunday and felt like he could fight for the win given the pace he demonstrated in the dry in Saturday’s sprint race.

But, prior to trying the bike in the wet warm-up, he concedes the sight of rain “was a disaster for my emotions”.

“It’s fantastic, it’s something that you can’t describe, it’s incredible,” Bezzecchi said of his maiden MotoGP win. “I felt this morning that I was really good, but when I saw the rain I was desperate honestly, because yesterday I felt very good on the bike and felt that [on Sunday] if I didn’t make any mistakes I can really try to win.

“[It] was the first time that I thought this in my career, and when I saw the rain it was a disaster for my emotions. Then in the warm-up I jumped on the bike and the feeling was incredible in the wet, so I said ‘Ok, I can do this. And the race was incredible.”

Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bezzecchi says he’s not sure why he was stronger than the rest of the field in the Argentina GP as he “just felt good”.

“It was tough because mentally these kinds of races are really hard,” added Bezzecchi, whose first grand prix win in any class came at Rio Hondo in Moto3 in 2018. “Honestly, I don’t know. I just felt good and I was trying to be smooth.

“I knew the tyre was dropping quick, so I said ‘Ok, I push, but I have to be sweet and be gentle with the bike’, and I was also speaking to myself to try to stay concentrated because when I looked at the laps for the first time there were 14 remaining.

“I said, ‘that’s quick’. But the last 14 laps were incredible long. So, it was tough.”