Pedro Acosta on second place in the championship: ‘Nobody expected that’

With more riders throwing away a good result than staying aboard their machines, Pedro Acosta took advantage of a crash fest in the Spanish MotoGP sprint to claim P2.

His second place finish behind Jorge Martin means that Acosta has now moved past Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales in the championship, with both riders crashing out at turn five.

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Bastianini went down when running closely behind Alex Marquez and Brad Binder, both of whom went down at the same corner on the same lap.

With damp patches clearly causing havoc, Acosta showed the type of experience and maturity well beyond his years to instead deliver KTM’s best finish once again.

Speaking after the race, Acosta said: “It was tough. I mean, it is quite difficult to understand where the patches were in turn five with the uphill and the sand.

“But anyway, we are on the way. We are improving and it is the first time in two years that I was really fast in the wet. Or competitive, let’s say.

“It was the first time in two years that I was able to go fast in the rain. I’m super happy for that.

“Also, it was the first good start and first lap that we have made. For this we are improving to one day be competitive.”

Following an impressive Friday, Acosta made hard work for himself by crashing in Q2 when he was about to go quickest.

Instead of it being a first pole position in the premier class, Acosta instead started tenth.

But although he made reference to it, Acosta didn’t let his poor qualifying stop him from being competitive.

“It’s true that we were paying for the bad qualifying that we did,” added Acosta. “But we need to believe and be calm to set our pace.”

Discussing his move up the standings to second place, Acosta gave very little away: “Nobody expected that but we need to not think about that and instead be calm.”