Bezzecchi fought through sickness to revive MotoGP title challenge

The former MotoGP championship leader dragged himself back into title contention at Silverstone in scenes no one expected.

The Italian Aprilia rider began the season with three straight victories for a 17-point lead at the top of the riders’ standings, and after a home win in round seven he was the firm favourite for the title.

However, everything went awry next time out in Hungary when an assault on a marshal saw him given a race ban, starting a chain of events that saw him score zero Grands Prix points and numerous crashes in the next four events.

Bezzecchi then spent much of the summer break in hospital, fixing a collarbone break suffered in Germany and also a knee clean-up.

Yet at Silverstone, he remarkably wasn’t far from his best.

Pre-event, ‘Bez’ said the British Grand Prix would be damage limitation before he hoped to be back to form in Aragon.

Yet a third place in Saturday’s sprint left the Italian in tears at his surprise return to form.

No one quite expected him to be able to battle through the pain barrier in Sunday’s full-length Grand Prix, but he then did exactly that, taking another third to breathe new life into his title fight.

Caught in the debrief room post-race, he was asked about his condition by Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin, and brutally responded: "I felt like throwing up."

Later, in his media duties with DAZN, he gave more information on a crazy weekend, saying: "I'm happy and tired. I can't take it anymore. But it's great, it was worth it.”

Asked if the four-week break since Germany had been harder physically or mentally, he gave an honest response.

"Both, definitely,” he said. “Physically, it's obvious, because you had two operations in the space of six or seven days, and after operations you generally feel unwell.

On his race in particular, he discussed dropping down the order before a rise back into the podium places.

“I was very focused and had saved myself some time with the tyres,” he explained.