GASGAS: Pedro Acosta ‘rode an unbelievable race, emotional opening round’

Red Bull GASGAS Tech 3 rider Pedro Acosta was the talk for many following the Qatar MotoGP.

Running inside the top five for large parts of the race, the rookie sensation was nothing short of brilliant. 

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Acosta showed just why the hype around him has been deserved, and despite falling down to ninth late on, the future looks bright for the reigning Moto2 champion.

Speaking about his rider’s performance, Team Manager Nicolas Goyon said: "It has been an emotional opening round for the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 team. 

"When Pedro Acosta qualified directly to Q2 on Saturday before finishing in P8 at the Tissot Sprint, it was already a successful weekend for us, but today’s race was MotoGP at its climax!

“Pedro rode an unbelievable race for his first one in MotoGP, he managed to go up to the fourth place before dropping a little bit, but it is unbelievable for a rookie.

“He fought with big names of MotoGP, and it is a huge achievement for which we can only say congratulations to him. 

“He was quite pleased with his bike today, so we can only highlight the job made by Pierer Mobility and the team this weekend and over the winter, because we have a bike to fight for the front.

“Finally, thanks to Pedro for his work, he has a bright future ahead of him, and we are just at the beginning.”

Goyon also spoke about Acosta’s team-mate Augusto Fernandez, who struggled and was nowhere near the pace of the rookie.

“On the other side of the garage, we saw some small steps being made by Augusto Fernandez. He felt a bit better today, but we are still too far, and we still want more,” added Goyon.

“The only way at the moment is to take it step by step to try being at the level we are targeting.”

Fernandez offered his own insight and admitted his feeling in the grand prix was ‘slightly better’, although not what he was hoping for.

Fernandez said: "We weren’t able to be in the points today, we are still far, but our feeling was slightly better and we have to be happy with it at the moment.

“The team is working very hard to give me the bike I need, and I am also giving everything to adapt to it as much as I can and need to be faster.

“Let’s take the positives, because it is the best day on the bike I’ve had since the pre-season, we have a good basis, so let’s continue working in Portugal."