Pedro Acosta still ‘doesn’t understand’ severe MotoGP tyre drop in Japan

Pedro Acosta admits he and KTM still “don’t understand” why he suffered such high tyre wear at the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix as the data suggested “I was managing a lot”.

The Spaniard came to last week’s Japanese Grand Prix in positive form following an upturn in results since the summer break, with Motegi a strong track for him in 2024.

Fighting for the podium early on last Sunday, Pedro Acosta quickly dropped away as he ran into tyre wear troubles, before finishing out of the points when he ran off track at Turn 1 late on.

Ahead of this weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika, Acosta admits KTM is still none the wiser as to why he suffered as much degradation as he did because the data showed he wasn’t abusing his rubber.

Asked what has changed on the KTM between him being so strong at Motegi in 2024 to last weekend’s difficulties, he replied: “Not that much.

“First of all the pace was much faster than last year.

“You only have to see that Pecco made the fastest race ever.

“First of all this. I made a good start, I tried to pass him in Turn 1, I passed him in Turn 3, I was trying to pass him in Turn 5, and one moment arrived where I said ‘ok, I cannot pass this guy, I try to stay here’.

“It’s true that we were not expecting that high degradation of the tyres.

“We don’t understand why because all the data we checked, it looked like I was managing a lot.

“I know in the sprint I was struggling with the tyre, but I was pushing the whole race. And everything that the team asked for me for Sunday, I did.

“And even like this it was not possible to finish the race with the tyres. Now we have to evaluate with the data and keep going because we are showing potential.”

KTM good at “saving the weekend”

Acosta’s Japan non-score was his second in a row, after a chain issue at the San Marino Grand Prix forced him to park up at Misano.

But he remains confident in KTM’s ability to ‘save the weekend’ and believes there was still “potential” shown in the bike in Japan.

“At  the moment we are making good races,” he said.

“We are showing good potential, even in many different tracks, with many different problems around, we are more or less saving the weekend at the last moment.

“Now we have to try to not have any problems, try to have a consistent weekend, and keep this rhythm because at the moment we are showing good potential.

“Europe, it is true, was super good. But already I had two non-scores for things that were not in our hands.

“When I talk ‘in our hands’, I mean KTM’s and my hands. This was quite hard to take because I was coming from many races without making mistakes, without doing stupid things.

“Then I was more or less always in this top five after the summer break and it was quite hard to see that it was just not in my hands.

“For this we have to stay positive. I think also in Japan we saw potential on Friday and Saturday morning in qualifying, which is not my strong point, we were feeling quite strong, also in the sprint race.

“The only problem was the race. For this, now we have to keep going, feet on the ground and try to give our best.”