Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi avoided a penalty after a scary collision with Alex Marquez in the opening stages of Practice at the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix.
The third-place rider in the championship was following Gresini’s Alex Marquez through the fast left-hander at Turn 3 when the pair collided under braking for Turn 4.
Marquez brakes first, with Bezzecchi seemingly caught out by this as he tries to move out of the way when he begins to stop.
Bezzecchi made contact with Marquez’s leg, which ripped the fairing from his Aprilia and sent him off at Turn 4, where he dropped his bike on the grass.
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“Nothing crazy…”
The FIM MotoGP stewards placed the incident under investigation immediately, but ultimately decided that no further action was warranted.
Explaining his part in the crash, Bezzecchi said: “Nothing crazy.
“I mean, I was very close, we were very close, and in braking, when he moved a bit, I tried to avoid him.
“But I touched his leg with my bike, and when I hit the grass, I crashed. So, fortunately, nothing crazy - just an incident can happen.”
Marco Bezzecchi, 2026 Australian MotoGP.
© Gold and Goose
Bezzecchi was able to quickly rejoin the session, which was briefly red-flagged to clean up the debris from the crash, and went on to finish Practice fastest of all on a 1m26.775s.
The Italian did get stuck under his bike for a moment when he crashed, but did no damage to his injured knee.
“It was the other one,” he replied when asked about his knee.
“I also broke the other knee, but it was a long time ago, so fortunately it was OK.
“The marshals ran away with my bike. I tried to follow, but my running is still not the best! But it’s getting better.”
Marquez, who crashed at the end of the session, said of the collision: “I don't know what happened; you'll have to ask him.
“I was focused on my own thing. I was on my usual racing line, at my normal pace.
“I think his idea was to overtake me at that point, because he was faster than me, but he miscalculated a bit.
“ But nothing happened, so it's no big deal; that’s just how it is.”
Lewis joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having been a journalist for five years covering MotoGP for the Motorsport Network. In February of 2026, he became Head of Editorial.