Pedro Acosta: “Normal Friday, but with two stupid crashes”

Pedro Acosta finished the opening day of the Italian MotoGP as the top KTM rider, however, it wasn’t a smooth-sailing day for the rookie.

Acosta went down twice, once in each practice session, including a fast tip-off at turn 13 which completely wrecked one of his RC16 machines.

Acosta was fast every time he stepped aboard his GASGAS bike, but the crashes, which he called ‘stupid’, no doubt hindered his running.

"It was a normal Friday for us I would say, but with two stupid crashes,” said Acosta. “The first one in the morning, we went wide, and the second one, the tyres were not warm enough, but it is all part of the learning.

“After the second crash, we improved our feeling a lot and we were able to get a fast lap.

“However, with these crashes, we were not able to focus enough on the race pace today, so it will be our focus in the morning before the qualifying, and then we will be able to see if we can be competitive in the races."

Nearly 1.6 seconds down on Acosta was team-mate Augusto Fernandez, who continues to endure a nightmare second season in MotoGP.

The Spaniard, to no surprise, summed up his Friday in a downbeat state as vibrations caused him havoc during practice.

"It was a very hard day, probably one of the toughest so far,” said Fernandez. “Since the start of the season, I have been struggling to feel confident with the bike in the fast corners, and Mugello is all about this, so logically I have not felt good at all today.

“We have a lot of work to do tonight, to understand how we can have a better feeling with the front of the bike, reduce the vibrations, and hopefully we can get closer to the guys, at least Jack Miller.”