Marco Bezzecchi admitted following his emphatic French Grand Prix win that he “expected” to cop his single position penalty for pushing Marc Marquez wide early in the encounter.
The Italian joined the fight for the rostrum positions having started the French GP seventh after narrowly avoiding a collision between his crashing VR46 team-mate Luca Marini and an unsighted Alex Marquez, Bezzecchi keen to make further progress by passing Marquez for second at that point in the race.
He then made an error under braking into Turn 6 as the race approached a thirds-distance and pushed Marquez off the circuit, dropping the pair behind Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin who Bezzecchi swiftly moved back clear of.
Having received a penalty to drop one position – which Bezzecchi took little time to redress after quickly finding a way back past Martin – he then chased down leader Jack Miller en-route to his second career premier class win.
Conceding that he “expected” to receive punishment for his move on Marquez’s Honda, Bezzecchi focussed on remaining “calm” while sorting out the penalty so that he could quickly begin to make forward progress once again.
“I expected it (penalty) because into that corner I braked a bit too late and when I realised I was coming closer and closer I tried to go to the inside and not hit him in the back and unfortunately I pushed him wide so I thought for sure they’d give me the dropped position,” explained Bezzecchi post race.
“I was ready for this and I agree with it as it was a little too much, it’s difficult to pass but I didn’t want to pass there so it’s fine and luckily I kept myself calm for the penalty to make sure I gave it back at the right place and then fight back.”
With his success seeing him close to within just solitary point of series leader Francesco Bagnaia – who failed to make the finish at Le Mans after crashing with Maverick Vinales early on – Bezzecchi added that he “felt incredible emotion” when crossing the line having felt “at one” with his Desmosedici.
“I saw that I was fast, at the beginning I didn’t want to use the front tyre too much and put too much temperature into it so when I was behind someone I was trying to pass quite quick and then when I found myself at the front where I had fresh air I tried to push,” continued Bezzecchi.
“I saw on Friday I had good pace so I tried to do the same, but today I was even better and could keep doing 1:31.9s and .8s which was fantastic.
“I could see I was escaping so I tried to stay calm and focussed, I was at one with my bike and I felt incredible emotion crossing the line, especially in the dry because the wet was good but in the dry it’s even more fun.”
