“You can admire Valentino Rossi without hating Marc Marquez!”

Marquez and Rossi engaged in one of MotoGP’s spikiest rivalries which played out on the track and in press conferences, particularly at the conclusion of the 2015 season, and it continues verbally to this day.

Bezzecchi is one of several Rossi proteges who now shares the grid - and is massively out-performing - Marquez.

"Of course you can admire Rossi without having to hate Marquez," Bezzecchi says to SoloMoto.

He said about Rossi: “For me he has always been my absolute idol. 

“I've grown up watching his races, and when I was a kid he was already winning. 

“I feel very lucky not only to be able to meet him, but that he is my boss, since after all I race for him in his team, but above all I feel very happy because he is much more than that, he is a very special boss.”

Seven-time MotoGP champion and the sport’s most famous face, Rossi, reappeared 18 months after retiring at Mugello earlier this year.

“He helped me a lot, not so much for the overall season, but especially for that GP,” Mooney VR46 rider Bezzecchi said. 

“He gave me a series of tips based on what he saw that I was doing on the track, and he pointed out things that I should improve.”

Bezzecchi has continued Rossi’s extraordinary legacy by delivering the Mooney VR46 team’s first-ever MotoGP win in Argentina earlier this year, before following it up with more glory at Le Mans.

He briefly led the standings but now sits third, a point behind second-place Jorge Martin, trailing Francesco Bagnaia who last season became the first VR46 Academy graduate to become the MotoGP champion.

Bezzecchi’s hopes for this season’s title remain alive.

His mentor’s old rival Marquez, however, is languishing at the other end of the standings…