"Every time I make a pole position I crash. It happened to me at Valencia in Moto3 in 2021 when they took me out and at Le Mans in 2022 I went down when I was in the lead." Pedro Acosta tries to take with philosophy his crash with four laps to go in the Sprint at Motegi, when he was in the lead and his first MotoGP victory seemed to be within reach. Instead, it ended in a tumble.
"It's hard to accept, I made a stupid mistake: I was a little bit off line and leant more. It wasn't raining, not a drop," he candidly explained, "I'm not a person who looks for excuses, but for solutions. This is not the time to make excuses, to say there was oil on the track. I was competitive and we have to take the positive things, maybe it was my best Sprint and KTM is growing. In the last 4 GPs we were strong, each race closer to the best and we were able to fight with them. We have to be happy, know how we improved, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it was my mistake."
Up to that point, the rookie was lapping and managing the race like a consummate champion.
"I was just trying to push in the points where I felt comfortable, so in the first, second and fourth sectors of the track," he continued, "The third one is the worst for me, already since I was racing in Moto2, so I was not forcing there. I was trying to be fluid, I was not out of control, but you have to accept what happened."
Despite the finish, Acosta showed he has all the cards to have his say at Motegi, even against the best in the class.
"I took the first lap a bit slow because I hadn't lapped behind anyone all weekend. Then Pecco came out of the last corner leaning over a lot and I passed him, because being in front is better for front tyre pressure but worse for consumption. It was a good overtaking move because I found good feelings in that attack, while last week with Bastianini I was going wide. Being strong in overtaking helps," he commented.
Certainly the RC16 is improving, but the Spanish rookie is also gaining experience in the premier class.
"This is the time when I'm thinking less about the bike. They tell me what to do, I get on the bike and the bike allows me to do it. We are not having problems and progressing, we are in a good moment," he said.
More importantly, tomorrow Pedro will have a chance to make up for it.
"It will be difficult to choose the tyre, it will be a bit of a lottery because no one has tried the medium and I have my doubts about the soft. We'll see what will happen," he concluded.