Pedro Acosta: “I was living a dream for 15 laps”, learned ‘a lot from the big boys’
Pedro Acosta says his first race in MotoGP was like ‘living a dream for 15 laps’ after battling at the front of the field with the championship’s biggest names.
Although he slid back down the order in the closing stages, Pedro Acosta was one of the stars of the show at the Qatar MotoGP as he previewed what’s to come for many years.
After a decent start, Acosta made his way through the field with ease as he picked off Aleix Espargaro, Jack Miller, Enea Bastianini and Alex Marquez.
Then sitting behind eight-time world champion Marc Marquez for a few laps, Acosta eventually made his move at turn one.
Within reach of a podium, Acosta started to lose pace as tyre wear kicked in for the rookie. A mistake followed as he ran off circuit in sector three, giving P4 back to Marquez.
Speaking after the race, an elated Acosta told MotoGP.com: “I’m super happy. I have nothing bad to say today because I was living the dream for 15 laps. We need to be happy.
“It’s true that at the end of the race we struggled with the tyres, but for 15 laps I was doing everything I knew how to do.
“And maybe I prefer to do 15 laps like this with the best riders in the world instead of being in the top nine for nothing. I think we learned a lot today.”
While tyre wear became an issue with over five laps remaining, Acosta was still able to put up a good defence against the likes of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Aleix Espargaro, both of whom eventually got through on the rookie.
But with Jack Miller crashing on lap two and team-mate Augusto Fernandez struggling for pace, Acosta was KTM’s second fastest rider after Brad Binder claimed another P2 finish.
Eager to spend as much time at the front of the field, even if it meant sacrificing his result by a few positions, Acosta admits he learned a lot.
“I saw what the big boys were doing and how the big boys were managing,” added the Spaniard.
“I saw how it was with the turbulence and how they were picking up the bike to save the tyre.
“I learned many things today. Maybe tomorrow I will be a bit clamer, but today it was a super nice race.”
