MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta is trying to see the positive side after two crashes during the Japanese weekend: “It’s not impossible to reach the level of Ducati”
The first pole of his MotoGP career has not brought Pedro Acosta any luck. After the rookie, riding for Tech3-GasGas, crashed while leading the race in the sprint on Saturday at the Japanese weekend in Motegi, he crashed while in second place in Sunday’s Grand Prix. The result: zero points for the entire weekend, which he had started from the best possible starting position.
Acosta’s crash in Saturday’s sprint race occurred at Turn 7 after he had accumulated six laps of the lead and was ahead of eventual race winner Francesco Bagnaia. Acosta’s crash in Sunday’s race occurred at the circuit’s final turn (Turn 14) while running second behind Bagnaia in the early stages of the race.
In summary, Acosta describes the Japanese weekend in Motegi as “certainly the saddest weekend of my career, but at the same time it was the weekend when I had the best feeling so far. And that’s what ultimately makes it so sad”.
The 20-year-old Spaniard described his crash on Saturday as a “stupid mistake on my part”, because at that moment he was a little off the ideal line in turn 7. He describes his crash on Sunday as a “small mistake that happened when I was trying to find out where I could overtake [Bagnaia]”.
“Maybe I tried to prepare the overtaking manoeuvre too much, turning the bike a little too early,” speculated the MotoGP rookie. “In any case, the result was that my front wheel slipped. These things happen and we have to accept them. Despite the crashes, we can take a lot of positives from this weekend.”
“I was closer to the Ducatis this weekend. That’s a good feeling, even though we know that we’re not currently racing at the same level as Ducati. But what we’ve learned here is that it’s still not impossible to reach that level. It’s a process,” said Acosta, who has signed with the KTM factory team for the next two years.