Pedro Acosta “needed to cool down” after “disaster” at Hungarian MotoGP

After a “disaster” on Saturday, Pedro Acosta was able to recover to the podium on Sunday at the Hungarian MotoGP.

The Spaniard started seventh but was in the podium battle by the time Marc Marquez passed Marco Bezzecchi for the lead on lap 11.

It took the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider five laps to figure out a way past Bezzecchi, but he was more or less mistake-free in the closing 10 laps of the race as he settled into his second place finishing position.

Acosta explained that the Balaton Park circuit, new to MotoGP for this season, was one that suited the KTM’s characteristics.

Pedro Acosta explains Hungarian MotoGP turnaround

“It’s a bit of everything,” Acosta told TNT Sports after the Hungary race.

“Normally the KTM, at tracks which are not fast, is a good bike. Normally I am quite good in these braking points.”

He took advantage of this strength on Sunday, but this was in contrast to a Saturday which saw him qualify seventh and crash in the Sprint.

“Everything was feeling quite easy on Friday, and then Saturday was completely a disaster,” Pedro Acosta told the post-race press conference in Hungary.

“For this, I needed to cool down a bit and try to save a normal result because I think in this track qualifying that far from the first row was more a handicap than [in other tracks].

“We have to be happy because, after the mechanics had to bring two new bikes from the crashes that I had on Friday and Saturday.

“I also was struggling in the Sprint with these passes with Martin. For this, to make good passes with Franco [Morbidelli] and also to Marco [Bezzecchi] was quite okay.

“It’s true that I think we managed in a good way the race, was missing a bit of experience on Saturday to don’t make the mess that I created.

“But I think we have to be happy about our weekend and how KTM is improving every race.”

Acosta was one of several riders to avoid disaster on the opening lap when Enea Bastianini crashed at turn 12 and his bike slid through the middle of turn 13.

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider explained that he had been fortunate the he lost time in the previous section.

“Thankfully, somehow I went quite wide and quite slow out of turn 10 and turn 11 and they take some metres from me, and I see how Enea [Bastianini] crashed when I was turning in turn 12,” he said on MotoGP.com’s After the Flag show.

“Somehow I saw how fast the bike closed.

“For this, Marini who was quite close [to Bastianini] went to the outside, I went to the inside.

“Thankfully I can pass quite clean, because it was not easy seeing all the gravel around and also Enea in the middle.

“For this, we managed in the best way. It’s true, also the passes to Marco [Bezzecchi] and Morbidelli were quite clean, also. The bike was working quite okay.”