Pedro Acosta 3rd but “a problem we have to keep living with”

Pedro Acosta was among those named by Friday practice leader Alex Marquez as also having “a really fast pace” on the opening day of the Portimao MotoGP weekend.

The KTM star had already been tipped as a victory contender at the undulating Portuguese circuit, where he claimed his first MotoGP podium as a rookie last season and celebrated wins in both Moto3 and Moto2.

While Marquez used a medium rear tyre to lap in the 1m 39s before the time attacks, Acosta ran a similar pace on the soft rear, the preferred choice for last year’s Sprint.

But Acosta also warned that the tyre wear issues that have hampered his challenge during the flyaways are something he and KTM will have to live with for the remainder rounds.

“I’m happy. Good work, pace, many good laps together,” Acosta told the official MotoGP website. “It's true that we were struggling a bit with tyre life again. I think it is the main issue that we have to work on tomorrow.”

“It's a matter of time [until] we improve it,” he added. “It's true that the problem is still there. But it's a problem that we have to keep living with.”

Acosta - who was just 0.088s behind Marquez and 0.058s from Francesco Bagnaia in the end-of-session time attacks - explained that the varied layout of the Algarve circuit exposes the strengths and weaknesses of the RC16.

“T1, 2, 3, we are quite okay, but then we are struggling a lot in T4,” he said. “We know already from Indonesia and Phillip Island that these long and fast corners are not our strong points.

“But we have many other strong points. For this we have to keep going and see where we can be competitive.”

Tech3’s Pol Espargaro was the only other KTM rider to secure direct Qualifying 2 access, in ninth position.