Pedro Acosta’s first day in MotoGP was more than satisfactory. While many eyes were focused on Marc Marquez’s first outing on the Gresini Racing Ducati, many others were focused on the Spaniard’s debut as a premier class rider, riding the GasGas Tech3. And the initial challenge was overcome with flying colors.
After an initial outing on the track to get to know the characteristics of MotoGP, Mazarrón’s “Shark” gained confidence over the course of the day to begin his adaptation. Little by little, he felt better until, in the afternoon, he lowered his time to 1’30″476, with which he finished in 18th place, just ahead of Alex Rins. Only a final accident dampened his day a bit, fortunately without physical consequences for #31, his new race number.
Once he got out of MotoGP, Acosta didn’t hide his joy at having had fun, so much so that he was able to take his rather low position in the timesheets for granted, something he usually doesn’t like. The Spaniard explained his feelings and the plan followed during the day.
“I had a lot of fun today,” he began. “I often say it, I don’t like being 20th, but today I took the positive aspects out of it. We were within a second or little more almost all day. We were at 1″2, we were close to the top 15, so today I’m very happy “.
“The bike was going very well. It ran a lot. On the first ride we decided not to touch any buttons, not to touch anything, to keep the bike as normal as possible. The first time I touched a button I made a mistake, I did three corners with the bike raised and there was no way to lower it. But we are happy, the steps we made were constant. What we improved was maintained throughout the day. It was important to have a solid base, it wasn’t necessary go fast and then get hurt,” he continued.
Acosta later explained his crash at the end of the afternoon session: “The first accident happened because I was stubborn, because here many times a straight is no longer a straight: from turn 1 to turn 2, from turn 6 at turn 7, from turn 11 to turn 12, they are no longer straight. So, I stayed too far to the left, I didn’t have time to move to the right, I pressed a button to deactivate a device… I didn’t have time to do so many things. I knew it was difficult, but in my head I was thinking ‘let’s go in’. It was a stupid thing to do, but now I know what not to do.”
He also stressed that he used the KTM’s lowering device, so as not to leave too much work to do for the February tests in Sepang: “We used the device from the second outing. The first was to see how the bike goes, to find out the brakes and to understand what a MotoGP is like. If today I had gone all day without using anything, without starting to understand the electronics, I would arrive in Malaysia and have to start from scratch. I was happy to understand this from the beginning, starting to understand how to simplify my life to turn certain things on or off…”.
“I will have my work cut out for me. KTM is very interested in making improvements over the winter for all the riders, and I will also have to work on my physical condition,” concluded Acosta, hinting that he will have a busy couple of months before returning to racing. riding the motorbike.
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