Marco Bezzecchi admitted that he feels “strange” to be leading the 2023 MotoGP rider’s standings three races into his sophomore campaign in the premier class.
The VR46 Ducati rider experienced a more subdued weekend at the Circuit of the Americas having secured a maiden series victory in Argentina two weeks prior, Bezzecchi qualifying in fifth before scoring solid points in both the sprint and grand prix encounters by taking the chequered flag sixth in both contests.
The Italian ran as high as fourth in the Americas GP in an outing afflicted by high-attrition, though he faded behind Aprilia duo Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira in the closing stages as he began to struggle with extreme front tyre wear.
Despite having described the race as “tough”, Bezzecchi ended up extending his points advantage to 11 over reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia after the factory Ducati pilot crashed while leading, Bezzecchi conceding it feels “strange” to lead the championship at this early point in his top-flight career.
“It was a tough race but honestly I’m quite satisfied, of course it’s not an exciting result compared to the past races but at the end I knew I couldn’t expect a win every time,” explained Bezzecchi.
“Today I was quite fast but maybe I pushed two or three laps too early, so I struggled with the wear of the front tyre.
“The last six or seven laps I was really trying to survive and Miguel (Oliveira) and Maverick (Vinales) passed me, they were a bit faster so I couldn’t stay with them and at the end I had to bring home the sixth place, but I’m satisfied.
“It’s strange (to be leading world championship), it’s really early so I’m not looking at it particularly but at the end I managed to make the best that I could, and if I could have looked after the front tyre better I could have been fourth or fifth.
“Sixth is positive and now we go to Jerez which is a track I really like, so we will try to be competitive.”
Keyword: Bezzecchi: ‘It’s strange’ to be leading championship