Pedro Acosta laments “stupid” Fermin Aldeguer battle at Misano MotoGP

Pedro Acosta’s sixth place in the Misano MotoGP Sprint was a far cry from his impressive second a few weeks ago at Aragon, the Spaniard bemoaning his “stupid” battle with Fermin Aldeguer afterwards.

Aldeguer had started third, but was quickly pushed to fourth at turn four on the first lap by Fabio Di Giannantonio. 

Jorge Martin quickly followed through, and then Acosta made his move on the Gresini rider at turn eight.

The battle between the two Murcians ran on to turn nine, where the two went wide and allowed Alex Marquez through. Aldeguer also lost position to Raul Fernandez and ended up finishing eighth.

Acosta never progressed from sixth after lap one, and said afterwards the battle was “stupid”, even if he admitted it was also fair.

“I mean, Aldeguer and me, we were making stupid shit around,” Pedro Acosta said after the Sprint.

“This cost us a lot of time, because I think without this battle, both should be more close to Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio] and Martin in that moment, you know? 

“But anyway, it's what it is, the battle was fair enough; for this, racing.”

Acosta explained that his difficulties on Saturday – having qualified only seventh before the underwhelming Sprint – stemmed from a lack of stopping efficiency, an area he has typically excelled in during his world championship career.

“I'm struggling a lot, stopping the bike,” the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider said.

“Somehow, it's not normally my weakest point, but it looks like this weekend I'm struggling a lot and we are not finding a solution. 

“This makes everything more difficult.”

He added: “When you only have some strong points and you lose it, it's making everything even worse.

“The team is working super hard to try to find everything out and try to find a solution. But at the moment, all the KTMs are having the same problem.”