MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta puts correct handling of the KTM RC16’s hydraulic clutch on his list of improvements for the future in the Tech3 team
Pedro Acosta will not be deterred from his path. Despite his fabulous debut in the MotoGP class, where he has already completed his first Grand Prix with the fastest lap in the field and finished his second Grand Prix on the podium, the 19-year-old Spaniard repeatedly emphasizes that he still has a lot to learn.
One example of Acosta’s learning process was the start of the Portuguese weekend in Portimao. In the Grand Prix on Sunday, which he ultimately finished third, he got off to a good start. The Tech3 GasGas rider only lost the seventh position he had secured in qualifying for a few seconds in the turmoil of the first corners. After half a lap he was seventh again. Shortly afterwards, his forward momentum began as he overtook Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia.
The day before in the sprint, Acosta had not got off to such a good start. In this case, the rookie, who set off from P7, “only” came back from the first lap in eleventh place, having only been twelfth in the first corner. Acosta had had a slight wheelie right at the start and was unable to accelerate as desired.
“The start was the problem. I lost 2.5 seconds in one go. In the end, I finished five seconds behind Maverick [Vinales],” said Acosta after the sprint and said that he had “handled the clutch strangely” at the start.
In contrast to the Kalex, which Acosta rode to the world title in the Moto2 class last year, the KTM RC16 in the MotoGP class has a hydraulic clutch. Getting the perfect feel for it, possibly by changing the settings, is something Acosta and the Tech3 team “need to keep working on”, as he says.
Directly after the season opener in Qatar, the MotoGP rookie had already commissioned another change to his RC16, namely a different position of the lever for activating the rear ride height device.
And the learning process will continue on the remaining race weekends of the season – most of them on tracks that Acosta has never ridden a MotoGP bike on before. “I still need more time on this bike, but we’re on the right track,” he says.
