Luca Marini hails Pedro Acosta’s “amazing” Indonesian MotoGP, KTM “unbelievable”

After spending multiple laps in the Indonesian MotoGP trying to find a way through Pedro Acosta, Luca Marini has heaped praise on the Spanish rider’s defensive riding.

Acosta led early on, but was soon passed by Fermin Aldeguer who went on to win by almost seven seconds.

His battle then was with Marini for multiple laps, with the Italian able to find his way through at turn 12 twice. On both occasions, Acosta was able to respond: first at turn 13, then at turn 16.

Marini would go on to finish fifth after contact with Raul Fernandez, while Acosta briefly lost second late on to Alex Marquez, but was then able to recover it.

Marini in particular was impressed with Acosta’s defensive display after the race.

“Pedro [Acosta] blocked completely everybody, he did an amazing race,” Luca Marini said after the Indonesian MotoGP.

“KTM every time allows them to brake super-deep, and also he used the medium [compound] front [tyre], maybe even for this; and the bike accelerates in a way that was unbelievable – much faster than Ducati, also. 

“So, it’s very difficult to overtake. I tried many times but then he overtook me again. 

Marini added that his own race was affected by the tyre pressure woes he encountered in the Sprint.

“I was managing a bit my tyre pressure because after the race of [Saturday] I was worried a little bit [about] it,” the Honda HRC rider said.

“But then I think that I had a good pace to be in P2 easily, just I needed to make a good overtake on Pedro and not let him pass me again.”