Marquez praises Acosta: “He did what a rookie should do” | FP

The champion and the rookie

In the all-Spanish challenge between the young debutant Pedro Acosta and the eight-time world champion Marc Marquez, making his debut this weekend with the Gresini team, the former Honda rider won the duel, but not without some difficulties. Starting from eighth position on the grid, the rookie managed to climb up to the foot of the podium, overtaking the multiple world champion in the fight for the 4th place.

However, the excessive pace of the 19-year-old from the GasGas team did not help the tire stability of his KTM, with Marquez subsequently regaining the position and the reigning Moto2 champion falling to ninth position.

Passed with full marks

An overall convincing performance from the new entry, so much so that they received congratulations and the 'promotion' directly from #93: “Yesterday I told myself that Acosta would arrive if we did a race managing the tires, because if you push hard without looking at the tires you can go faster, and that's what he did – he explained to Sky Sport MotoGP – he he pushed a lot, but that's what a rookie has to do: you have to push hard to see where it ends up. When he overtook me we lost a bit of time because Martin had gotten away from me, but he was very aggressive. He was very good for a rookiehe ran very well and was confident with the bike. He will soon be able to fight with the big boys.”.

The obstacle in Qatar

In addition, Marquez also explained what was the main problem encountered in the opening race of the season: “Today I had to manage the front tire – he continued – it was the one that it worried me more. Yesterday it was over, and today it was my concern. When Martin got away from me a bit and I had the duel with Pedro in which I lost time, because we both went wide at 12 on a less than perfect lap, I used the front a lot to catch Martin, and when I got behind he tire temperature rose. I think Martin was faster than Binder, but when he got behind him he couldn't overtake him, so you have to manage a lot of things.”