Pedro Acosta hails “gentleman” Pecco Bagnaia after “unbelievable” duel

KTM’s Pedro Acosta has hailed Pecco Bagnaia as a “gentleman” after the pair battled hard over the final podium place in the early laps of the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old started alongside the double world champion on the grid and followed him through into fourth at the first corner.

The pair battled hard over third across laps two and four, with Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia ultimately getting the upper hand.

Bagnaia darted away to secure third at the chequered flag, while Pedro Acosta registered his best dry result of the season in fourth on the factory KTM.

Acosta admits “it was a battle that, sooner or latest, I would lose” but praised Bagnaia’s race craft and the cleanliness of his moves.

“To be honest, the only strategy that I had was to stop him, but the problem is that one lap I was close to hitting him from behind in Turn 1 and I went wide – [after] that I rode my race,” he said.

“Because he was faster, sooner or later he was going to pass me and go away because they were 0.2 seconds faster every lap than me.

“It was a battle that, sooner or later, I would lose. But, anyway, I enjoyed the first five laps.

“It was unbelievable. Also, Pecco is a gentleman, he’s quite clean in the track.

“I think it was a good battle. Even, I don’t know, I was forcing him to go a little bit wide, he was forcing in the final corner to go a little bit wide. I really enjoyed with him.”

Bagnaia doesn’t feel his battle with Acosta held him up in trying to pressure Alex Marquez for second, while noting that his bike helped him to outdrag the KTM on the back straight.

“I don’t want to say that I lost time fighting with Pedro because at the start, as soon as I was in front of him I started to catch back Alex and I was already there in the first laps,” Bagnaia said.

“He was braking super-hard, he was super-strong on the brakes with the hard [compound] front tyre.

“I was just trying to improve every lap, but I was losing in acceleration because the stability in some accelerations was a bit lower.

“So, I was just trying to remain focused on Alex, I didn’t want to lose the slipstream of Alex, so every time he overtook me I was trying to stay as close as possible to try and overtake him back.

“It’s true that my Ducati was helping me in the back straight when I overtook him back, but he was super strong.

“When I was finally in front I was able to follow Alex, and he was struggling a bit more.”