Pecco Bagnaia Qatar MotoGP crash shocks Pedro Acosta

Pedro Acosta says the crash between Francesco Bagnaia and Fermin Aldeguer in the Qatar MotoGP Sprint was the biggest he’s seen up close in “a long time”.

Acosta was between Bagnaia and Aldeguer as they approached the final corner on the opening lap of the Sprint. Aldeguer tried to pass Acosta, but misjudged the overtake and hit Bagnaia’s rear wheel, launching the Italian who broke a foot as a result.

The red flag was thrown and the race ultimately restarted over 10 laps, but the crash itself was one that left Acosta sympathetic for the rider he will replace at Ducati Lenovo next season.

“I saw it up close,” said Pedro Acosta after the Sprint, as reported by GPOne.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a bad crash up close in MotoGP. I hope Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] is okay, because it was a nasty hit, and that he can recover quickly.”

Bagnaia broke two metatarsals in the crash, a lucky escape in Acosta’s view.

“He broke his foot? He got off lightly, considering how it could have turned out,” the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider said, before going on to defend Aldeguer, who was racing for the first time since he broke his hand in Indonesia at the beginning of October.

“It was a slightly premature and fairly aggressive pass, but I also understand Fermin’s [Aldeguer] position: he’s been out for so many races, and on the first race weekend, it’s not easy to get used to a MotoGP bike again – to all the aerodynamics and how the bike behaves, which can sometimes feel a bit unnatural. Anyone can make a mistake.”

As for Acosta’s race, it marked an improvement over Friday, finishing sixth after finishing Practice outside the top-10.

However, the Spaniard said afterwards that he was unable to get the tyres working as he needed in the restart, after the Aldeguer-Bagnaia crash, which he noted was similar to what he encountered in one of the restarts in Barcelona earlier this year.

“The first start went very well,” Acosta said of his Qatar Sprint.

“I felt fast, and the bike was handling pretty well.

“In the second one, however, I struggled to get the tyres working and to find the right rhythm. We need to figure out why, because the same thing happened to me during the third start in Barcelona, where I couldn’t get things to work.”

The solution could be in tyre pressures, Acosta added: “We need to try pushing a little harder at the limit with the pressure because, after all the problems we’ve had due to low pressure, we decided to play it safe and take no risks at all – not even a little! 

“We should try to find the right balance.”