Marco Bezzecchi was “quite scared” after seagull strike in Australian GP sprint

Marco Bezzecchi has admitted that he was “quite scared” that he had damaged his Aprilia MotoGP bike after an unfortunate collision with a seagull on the warm-up lap of the Australian Grand Prix sprint.

A flock of seagulls gathered on the start/finish straight before the formation lap got under way at Phillip Island, with Bezzecchi striking a wayward bird as he set off from pole position.

The seagull got stuck in the front section of his motorcycle for a while, but the Italian recovered from the early mishap to claim a dominant win, leading a 1-2 for Aprilia ahead of Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez.

However, despite his three-second winning margin, Bezzecchi was keen to stress that it wasn’t an easy race for him, explaining how the seagull strike gave him a brief scare.

“When I started the warm-up lap, they also started the warm-up lap,” he joked. “It was a difficult moment, especially because I didn’t really know what to do and I was just trying to protect myself.

“After that, I was quite scared that maybe the bike was damaged, but fortunately, it was not. Obviously, I’m quite sorry for this, but I couldn’t do anything.”

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images

Starting from the front row on the grid, Bezzecchi settled into second place on the opening lap behind Fernandez, who stormed into the lead with a brilliant getaway from fourth place.

However, Bezzecchi couldn’t make any inroads into Fernandez’s lead in the early phase of the race, and it wasn’t until lap 6 that he was within striking distance of the Spaniard.

The Italian admitted that his bike didn’t quite feel right in the opening laps of the race, but said he couldn’t be sure if it was related to the seagull strike.

“On the left especially, I suffered a lot with the front tyre in the beginning,” he explained.

“I thought maybe I broke the aero or something. I don’t know if it was because of this [the seagull hit] or not, but I saw this after the second lap.

“I think it was not because of this, but I will never know.”

On lap 6, Bezzecchi nearly ran into the back of race leader Fernandez when he missed his braking marker for Turn 10, losing almost a second in the process as he ran wide off the track.

However, he quickly caught up to the Trackhouse rider and completed an easy pass on lap 10 to take back-to-back sprint wins in 2025.

When asked to explain the error, Bezzecchi said: “I made a small mistake at the bottom of the hill of Turn 9. I lost the rear a bit just before braking, and when I braked, I got a massive shake.

“I wanted to prepare well for Turn 10, because Raul was always going wide since two or three laps in a row. I wanted to be close to maybe take the slipstream and pass on the first braking. Then, fortunately, I recovered well from the mistake.”

Bezzecchi’s scintillating sprint race pace makes him one of the favourites for victory on Sunday, even with the double long-lap penalty he is carrying for taking out Marc Marquez in the Indonesian Grand Prix.

However, the 26-year-old downplayed his chances for the grand prix, noting that several variables – including weather and tyre choice – could influence the result.

“I don’t know [if a win is possible],” he said. “First of all, we don’t know the condition for tomorrow, especially about the weather.

“Of course, the soft is super grippy, but on the last lap, it was already dropping a lot for me. So I think it’s difficult to keep this as an option for the longer race.

“The combo [of] the weather condition and medium rear – if it’s possible – plus two long laps makes everything quite complicated.

“The target for me is to try to take out the best from the race. If it’s a top 10, I will be happy with a top 10. If it’s a top five, the same or more.”