Pedro Acosta “six out of ten happy” as “unexpected things appear” at Sepang test

Pedro Acosta left the Sepang MotoGP test feeling “six out of ten happy” with the opening pre-season outing.

The Spanish star is sure the latest KTM is more competitive than it looked on the timesheet, although it remains “slower than Ducati”.

Acosta’s eighth place overall came with the caveat that his best 1m 57. 116s lap of the test was on day two.

“I would say inside the top five, around 1m 56.8s, something like this,” Pedro Acosta said of the RC16’s true time-attack potential.

“The problem is I was making chassis tests on day one, then riding with last year's bike [on day two]. [On day three] I had to make a lap time with the standard bike and the new one.

“For this, we didn't put the new tyre at the right moment, but we did other things… The time attack was not really my target."

Indeed, Acosta, a double podium finisher in last October’s grand prix weekend, was more effective during his Sprint simulation.

The KTM rider was next-best behind the factory-spec Ducatis of Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, completing the ten-lap distance 6.482s slower than pace-setter Alex and just under 4-seconds behind Marc.

For comparison, Acosta finished third and +5.155 in last October's Sprint race, won by Bagnaia.

Acosta also got the chance to follow Marc Marquez - the rider he is rumoured to be joining at Ducati in 2027 - for the start of his simulation.

“There were things that we were not expecting in that race simulation, to be honest,” Acosta said cryptically.

“First of all, Marc, his last two laps I was behind him, catching him a lot. I mean, his tyres were already dead and I was fresh. But anyway, it was in the opposite way, it was the same effect.

“We are still slower than Ducati, but my target from here was to have a clear image in my head of what pieces we have to bring to Thailand and try to make the best package we have.”

Quizzed further on what he had learned from the simulation, Acosta replied: “Like I said, things appear that we didn't expect in the bike, and we have to understand where they are coming from.

“[The Sprint sim] was not ‘wow’, let's say, in my opinion. But everything was not as bad as last year in the test. Ducati is still a step forward but looks like the [KTM] bike is working better.

“Now my target is to create pure speed in Thailand, because here I was not really wanting to crash. I wanted to spend time on track and try to be as fast as I could without mistakes.”

Acosta concluded: “I'm six out of ten happy. I'm happy about my performance, how we managed things, how the things in the box are going.

“We didn't put the tyre in the right moment for the time attack, but I was not focusing purely on positions. I was purely focusing on the job.”

Tech3’s Maverick Vinales was a fraction slower than Acosta’s time attack for ninth on the combined standings, with the other RC16s of Enea Bastianini 11th and Brad Binder 13th.