Pedro Acosta confronted with “strange” KTM characteristics in Japanese MotoGP

Pedro Acosta’s seventh at the Japanese MotoGP made the race his first “tough one” in a while.

Acosta started from the front row, but got off to a poor start, being passed by Marco Bezzecchi early on before losing out to Alex Marquez as well.

Acosta would regain the position from Marquez when he served his double long lap penalty, but by then he’d already lost position to Enea Bastianini and was now battling with the Trackhouse Aprilia riders for fifth.

Ultimately, Acosta ended up seventh, losing position to Ai Ogura late on when trying to attack Raul Fernandez for that final top-five position.

“Tough one,” Pedro Acosta reflected after the Japanese MotoGP.

“Really long time without that tough one. 

“Anyway, looks like we didn't match the bike with the tyres, I don't know why. I was struggling a lot to stop the bike and even then to have some grip in the drive area. 

“But anyway, P7, not a disaster. It's true that not our day also, but quite happy to see that other KTM [Bastianini] was quite fast, bringing up P4 and like this we have some data to check what we made wrong.”

Acosta added he didn’t think there was anything particularly wrong with his bike, just a problem with the setup in acceleration and braking that cost him grip.

“I mean, being honest, I was not having grip in braking, but also not in drive at the beginning, then it was not bad,” he said.

“Then I had again another drop at the end. 

“I don't know, so strange, because the bike was feeling good, let's say; I mean, taking out in the brakes and in the exit of the corners, how the bike was working was feeling normal.

“Really strange. Now we have to check all the data with the team, because it's something that was the first time that I have this feeling.”

The difference from Saturday, when Acosta was third in qualifying, to Sunday was not just about the change to the hard-option tyre.

“I don't think that just changing the tyres, and I was that fast and I was that slow,” the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider said.

“You know what I mean? For this, has been something around. What? We don't really know.

“But anyway, P7, we survived, I would say. Let's move onto Mandalika.”