MotoGP Saturday in Barcelona could not have gone much better for super rookie Pedro Acosta, who managed a podium finish in the sprint on his 20th birthday. Visibly inspired by this, the GasGas rider was again on course for a top-three result in the Catalonia Grand Prix on Sunday, but then crashed at turn ten and buried all champagne hopes in the gravel.
“I had a problem with the front of the bike. We don’t yet know exactly what happened,” said Acosta, describing the incident that occurred at the end of lap eleven in the long left-hand bend T10, which was newly created in 2021. Directly behind Jorge Martin, who was in the lead at the time, the young Spaniard’s KTM RC16 collapsed when turning into turn ten, causing him to fall to the ground and slide into the gravel. However, Acosta believes he did not make a mistake and reveals that the crash cannot be fully understood in the team’s data either: “We still have a few question marks there.”
Pedro Acosta puzzles over MotoGP crash: Not entirely understandable
So there was a lot of guessing in the Tech3 garage, because the only thing Acosta could say for sure was: “It wasn’t the tires.” He was one of only four riders to tackle the Catalonia Grand Prix with the soft rear, which in Barcelona, according to some riders, tends to push the rear of the motorcycle slightly forward when braking. This in turn can lead to the front being overloaded and eventually no longer being able to withstand the load. This is when a crash occurs. Another reason why the vast majority of the MotoGP field opted for the medium version on Sunday, in addition to the longer lifespan. But in the case of the GasGas rookie, this was not the cause of the mysterious crash on Sunday afternoon.
Bitter, because Acosta was on course for another top result at that point. “The motorcycle was damn competitive again today,” he says, complaining: “The bike was ready to go on the podium. That’s why I’m pretty angry, because I don’t like throwing away a podium.” But would it have been enough? After all, the ‘Shark of Mazarron’ set a high pace in the first half of the race. Perhaps too high to get the sensitive soft tires over the 24 laps without a drop in performance?
Pedro Acosta confident: Third place was the worst-case scenario!
Acosta is confident: “For me, this was the tyre to win. I don’t want to say that I managed to beat Pecco [Bagnaia] and Martin, but with my pace and the lead I had over the group around Marc [Marquez] I mean, I was half a second faster than her – third place would have been the worst-case scenario.”
Almost nine seconds separated second-placed Martin from third-placed Marquez at the finish. A gap that Acosta had at least seen himself in. Because a drop in performance was not an issue due to a clever tire tactic. “I just managed all the right-hand bends and used the tires in the few left-hand bends to stay close to him. [Martin, Anm.] to stay with it,” reveals Acosta, and reiterates: “I’m not saying that I would have won because I crashed. But I had a competitive bike and I would have finished between Martin and Marc for sure.”