Pedro Acosta explains Barcelona MotoGP tyre gamble that led to “suffering”

KTM’s Pedro Acosta says he was forced into a gamble to run the soft rear tyre in the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix because he “was not feeling great” on the medium at any point.

During Friday’s Practice session, the 21-year-old did most of his work on the soft rear and put in some strong pace.

However, the medium was expected to be the race option due to how hard the Barcelona circuit is on tyres.

Indeed, the entirety of the field opted for the medium option, with Pedro Acosta the only rider to deviate from this and choose the soft.

The KTM rider was able to take advantage of it early on to run third in a close top four battle lead by eventual winner Alex Marquez, Marc Marquez, with Tech3’s Enea Bastianini in fourth.

Bastianini passed Acosta for third on lap 11 of 24, before the latter faded dramatically from the podium group over the second half of the race.

Despite his pace drop, Acosta was still able to take the chequered flag in fourth.

“Well, tough,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“I was not feeling great on Friday with the medium and also not this morning.

“For this, I decided to go with the soft. It’s true that after lap 10 I was already done and I was just suffering.

“But, I mean we have to be happy. Double P4 this weekend.

“We are trying to manage to be always in the top five, always to be constant there.

“For this, let’s see what Misano is preparing for us.”

Acosta utilised a similar strategy a few weeks ago at Balaton Park and was able to come from seventh to second in that grand prix.

A brace of fourths wrapped up a strong weekend for Acosta and for KTM as a whole, with Bastianini third in the grand prix.

It has put KTM just two points from Aprilia now in the battle for second in the constructors’ championship.

Acosta is also sitting fifth in the riders’ standings and just 14 points from fourth-placed Marco Bezzecchi, who suffered a double DNF at Barcelona.