Bezzecchi refuses “strongest rider” tag, says peak is yet to come

MotoGP rider Marco Bezzecchi has denied that he is the strongest man on a grid that is missing world champion Marc Marquez.

Bezzecchi has won three of the last four sprint races and was clearly the fastest man at the last two meetings in Indonesia and Australia. He has only failed to win the respective grands prix due to his incident with Marquez at Mandalika and the resulting double long lap penalty at Phillip Island.

But the Italian was keen to play down prompts that he was the “strongest rider”, suggesting instead that he still had work to do before reaching his peak.

The Aprilia man was responding to the question in the Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, which an injured Marquez will miss following the Indonesian clash.

“I don’t really know how to answer… it’s a very complicated question,” said a poker-faced Bezzecchi. “As you know, in sport… you can make the difference when you are constantly at your top [performing at your best]. I’m trying to do this but I don’t think that I’m at that point right now.”

The 26-year-old was equally reluctant to claim Aprilia had the strongest bike on the grid, even though independent rider Raul Fernandez strengthened the case for that with his victory in Australia.

Bezzecchi and Fernandez shared the spoils for Aprilia in Australia

Photo by: Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images

But Bezzecchi, who moved into third place in the championship following the Phillip Island race, did admit that this weekend’s race at Sepang would offer a good measure of Aprilia’s progress. That’s because the pre-season test at the same venue was where the Rimini native, who moved from VR46 Ducati for this season, first got to know the bike ahead of what was a slow start to 2025.

“Actually, I’m super happy to be here because it’s the only track where I have a bit of a reference from the testing, and I have to say that we were struggling a bit [then]. So, I’m very curious to see how the first reaction with the bike will be and the first sensation on this amazing track.

“Of course we made many changes during the season so far, so it will be important to try to see how we have improved.

“Aprilia has done an amazing job. We’ve been working super hard since the beginning and they have also made many improvements on the bike. It’s difficult to [name] only one, but maybe from my personal point of view the one that helped me the most was the stability in braking.”