It was supposed to be his weekend and instead the pole position he took on Saturday did not bring good things for Pedro Acosta, who leaves Motegi with two heavy knockouts for the standings and for morale despite, as he was keen to point out hot on the heels, there is the good news of a more human and less extraterrestrial Ducati.
"It was the saddest and most painful weekend since the beginning of the season, however I was competitive as never before, staying steadily in the top five, so you have to take the positive side," he admitted with regret, but still trying to find something good after the Sprint Race and GP slips.
Explaining what led him to end up on the ground, he argued, "A silly thing. I was close, I saw that Bagnaia from Turn 6 to 10 was quite strong, so I tried to recover in the last sector to attack him at 5, but I started to corner and touch the gas maybe before time and lost the front. These are things that can happen to should be accepted."
"In any case I tried to have the pace. I think even with more experience it would have happened. Too bad because it was a good day. In terms of the ranking it was my worst weekend, but also the one where I felt I could make more of a difference. I hope to feel the same feelings in Australia. Did the anxiety of the first success weigh? I don't think it was because of that. I caught a glimpse that the opportunity was there and I went for it. That's what I had to do," he then defended himself.
Making a comparison with the Desmosedici he pointed out, "It's clear that we are behind, but now a little less and they don't seem to be unassailable anymore. It's not good to fall, but even staying fourth can't allow me to win and play it. We have to keep pushing even though they still have some margin." On the choice of the hard-medium tire, he added, "The bike was more stable. It is true that with the softs you have more grip, but already from the warm up we knew we would opt for that."
Still bitter about what happened, the Spaniard downplayed the value of the Rookie of the Year title. "There was no competition in this trophy, so it doesn't change anything for me. You have to focus on the big goals and then eventually review them. Today I just wanted to be competitive, stay in front and gather information on this setting. More KTMs in the top 10? That's good especially for the remaining GPs. When the gap between the bikes is high it becomes difficult to try things and make comparisons."
Finally, a word on the very fresh Moto3 champion David Alonso: "He deserved it because no one was able to undermine him."
Automatic Translation by DeepL