MotoGP: Bezzecchi Wins Maiden Grand Prix in Argentina

On the April 3 2023, the young Italian rider Marco Bezzecchi channeled his master, Valentino Rossi’s spirit to completely outclass the field in a wet weather masterclass to win his first Grand Prix at the Termas de Rio Hondo.

The race start was frantic but the Italian got away well on his one-year old satellite Ducati and took the lead immediately from polesitter Alex Marquez.  He was then able to maintain his position till the end of the race, finishing four seconds ahead of Zarco in P2. At times Bezzecchi was half a second per lap quicker than his nearest competitor. It was a wet weather masterclass to remember not only for his performance but also as a win that further cements Valentino Rossi’s immense legacy, now as a team owner.

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia started well and settled into 3^rd before pushing his factory Ducati past Alex Marquez to claim 2^nd. However, this was not to be the final result as the Italian showed shades of early 2022 inconsistency when he slid out of the race with eight laps to go.

A little further back, all was not was well for the sprint race hero, KTM’s Brad Binder, as small contact with Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales on lap 1 sent him sliding out of the race, although he immediately re-joined. 

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo had a hellish start too, after getting bumped wide by an aggressive overtake from the LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami, which relegated him to the back of the field only ahead of Brad Binder. This however did not deter the 2021 world champion as he valiantly fought back up to seventh performing to claim nine points. His teammate, Franco Morbidelli had quite a quite a pleasant day finishing fourth as he seemed to be able to push his Yamaha M1 much more than before despite not being able to hold the faster Ducatis behind. 

The midfield standings ebbed and flowed as battles raged up and down the order. The KTM of Jack Miller, the Pramac Ducati duo of Johan Zarco and Jorge Martin, the LCR Honda of Alex Rins and the Gresini Ducati of Fabio DiGiannantonio waged a thrilling war in the middle stages of the race with positions swapping constantly. Rins made his way from 12^th to 5^th at one point but eventually finished 9^th. The Frenchman Johan Zarco, in the final few laps decided he’d had enough and started to set the timing screens on fire lapping almost a second quicker than the race leader. Displaying Bastianini-like late race pace, he scythed his way through the field to finish on the second step of the podium.

Undoubtedly, the biggest disappointment of the weekend were the Aprilia’s of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales who never seemed to find their feet at all despite such a strong showing in practice. The pair ended up finishing 36s and 26s respectively, behind the race winner in 12^th and 15^th.

The sensational victory for Bezzecchi sent him to the top of the rider standings with 50 points, your new championship leader.

The finishing order was as follows:

1. M. Bez
2. J. Zarco
3. A. Marquez
4. F. Morbidelli
5. J. Martin
6. J. Miller
7. F. Quartararo
8. L. Marini
9. A. Rins
10. F. DiG
11. A. Fernandez
12. M. Vinales
13. T. Nakagami
14. R. Fernandez
15. A. Espargaro
16. F. Bagnaia
17. B. Binder