Pedro Acosta: ‘We are coming, but race pace not enough at the moment’
Pedro Acosta’s strong start to MotoGP pre-season testing continued at Sepang, and the young Spaniard feels as though he is close to the top riders.
While it’s only testing, Pedro Acosta’s smooth adaptation to MotoGP can’t be ignored as he impressed again on day-two of the Sepang test.
The GASGAS Tech 3 KTM rider finished just six tenths behind Enea Bastianini, who set a new unofficial lap record.
Acosta’s pace over race distance has been getting stronger day after day, but it’s also his time attack runs which are starting to make waves too.
“It was not so bad,” said Acosta after Wednesday’s running. “We are happy because we are 0.5s faster than yesterday, 0.4s faster than the Shakedown. For this, we are coming.”
Although a two-time world champion thanks to his success in Moto3 and Moto2, Acosta arrived in MotoGP as one of the most impressive young riders the series has ever seen.
And his testing performances have backed that up completely, however, the level in MotoGP is arguably better than ever.
The teenager admits that the riders around him have a lot more experience and that this will count for something as he continues to grow in the class.
“I was counting how many world champions are ahead of me and I could count six or seven, so this is MotoGP,” added Acosta.
“These guys have experience. They spend a lot of years in MotoGP but on the other hand they spent a lot of years in the world championship.
“This is only my third year coming to Malaysia. It is not so many. These guys know how to go fast.
“They know how to go fast, they are not a track day guy. They know how to do it for the settings [of the bike].”
Much faster than the Shakedown test, Acosta has been faster every day that he’s taken to the Sepang circuit, but he knows that more is needed in terms of race pace to become a challenger for big results.
Discussing his race pace, Acosta said: “Better than yesterday. We are on the way. It is not enough at the moment but is it getting better.
“This is coming. Now we are faster over one lap and we are faster on the way to do the lap.
“We are faster with race pace and understand the electronics better.”
