Acosta: Vinales, Rins had crazy corner speed, I said ‘I can do that too!’

Not even a small fall could wipe the smile off MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta’s face at the end of his first day on a KTM RC16 at the Valencia test.

Peter McLaren

11 Dec 2023

The reigning Moto2 champion, who was earlier seen drifting his GASGAS-liveried machine into the final corner, joked he was eventually caught out after trying to mimic the corner speed of Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins.

“The crash came because I made a mistake in Turn 1, then I had a movement between 1 and 2 and I was too much on the left to achieve the correct [line],” Acosta explained.

“But to be honest, I saw Maverick and Rins having crazy corner speed, and I said, ‘I can do that too!’

“It was totally my fault. But anyway, it was good also to understand what I cannot do.”

Acosta finished his debut in 18th place on the timesheets, just ahead of new Yamaha rider Rins and only 1.223s from leader Vinales (Aprilia).

“It was better than my dream,” Acosta said of his performance. “Because we have to be realistic. I cannot arrive here and say, 'I will destroy the lap record'.

“It's true I am super happy to be all day between +1 and 1.7s, it was super nice to be in this area. I think that the level is not so different from the first to the last [rider in MotoGP], and small things make big gaps.

“You can see also on my last flying lap, I lost everything in the last sector. We have to understand how to ride and how and when to use some tools [features of the bike]. But anyway, it was a really good day.”

The Spanish teenager was also satisfied to see that his riding style was already comparable with the other RC16 riders.

“We compared myself to all the KTM riders, between Augusto and all these things. It's true that it's not so different. It becomes quite normal.

“It's not a Moto2 bike, that is maybe a mix [racing chassis, production engine], this is a real racing bike.

“But anyway, it was good. The important thing is the team was really focused to [give me] a really good first impression about the bike.”

Acosta will be working with ex-Pol Espargaro crew chief Paul Trevathan at Tech3 next season.

“My crew chief Paul has been here since the [KTM MotoGP] project started with Pol. Before I went out he said, "If you want to change something, tell me, I am here for you". And I said, "No, I am here for you!"

“He knows how to help me understand how to ride, he knows perfectly that you need to prepare the bike for this. I'm quite happy to be in this group of people. They are amazing.”

Acosta’s next MotoGP outing will be at Sepang in February.