“This is not normal” - Pedro Acosta puzzled by Hungary MotoGP practice domination

KTM’s Pedro Acosta says the fact he was dominant on Friday at the MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix, a week on from a tough Mugello weekend, is “not normal”.

The Spaniard was over four tenths clear of the field at the end of Friday afternoon’s Practice at Balaton Park.

It follows on from strong form in Hungary last year, though also comes a week on from an Italian Grand Prix where he was only 10th on the grid and sixth in the race.

“Tomorrow will be a question mark,” Pedro Acosta said on Friday.

“At the end, it’s quite strange for us to understand why I’m competitive in Barcelona, really slow in Mugello, and again competitive here.

“This is not normal, and we have to understand something, because if not, it’s impossible to make constant weekends throughout the year to try to arrive to the final target, which is too… it’s not my case, but to fight for a championship you need to be really constant during the year.

“A bad race cannot be P12, let’s say. We need to understand this.

“But the bike last year suited well here. Also, my style is much easier to use my strong points here than in Mugello.”

‘The feeling here is not that different to Mugello’

What’s more baffling for Acosta is that his feeling on the KTM is not dissimilar to what it was at Mugello.

But he believes the slower, stop-and-go nature of the track does suit him more, with the next-best KTM over a second adrift in 15th on Friday.

“First of all, we are not struggling on the straights here,” he added.

“That was something in Mugello that was clear.

“Here, this helps a lot because nothing changed from Mugello to here, but it’s just the fact that the track is not that fast and we don’t lose that much.

“But again, the feeling of Mugello was not that different to the feeling that I have now.

“And now I’m fast, and Friday at Mugello I was really slow. For this, it’s really difficult to understand.”

On race pace, he noted: “Not bad with the soft. I’m quite happy.

“It’s true that Marc [Marquez] surprised me withh the medium.

“It’s true that I raced last year with the soft and he raced last year with the medium.

“For this, already it looks like different strategies. But we need to improve race pace for tomorrow also on the medium.”