The Casey Stoner MotoGP comparison being drawn about Pedro Acosta

Pedro Acosta once again took a step towards his first win in MotoGP at the Japanese Grand Prix, though a double DNF thwarted his hopes.

The Tech3 GASGAS rider qualified on pole for the first time to become the third youngest polesitter in history.

Showing strong pace all weekend, Acosta crashed out of the lead of the sprint race just as he was beginning to break away from the rest of the field. In the grand prix, he suffered another crash while running second to eventual winner Francesco Bagnaia in the early stages.

It was a bitter end to a weekend that promised so much for the 20-year-old, whose speedy but crash-filled debut year can be likened to that of double world champion Casey Stoner’s in 2006.

“It was the big talking point on Saturday,” Crash’s Social Media Manager and MotoGP podcast host Jordan Moreland said of Acosta.

“He’d taken the lead in the sprint and obviously he got pole position, third youngest in history behind Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez.

“It looked like it was the perfect story for Acosta and Tech3. He took the lead, he was looking so good and he just went down.

“The chance kind of went, but then you thought maybe that the grand prix he could do it again. But maybe he was just pushing a bit too much and lost the front at the last corner.”

Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren added: “I think he called it the saddest moment of his career after the race. But he did also say it was the best feeling he’s had on the bike all year.

“And that’s the thing. He’s got the speed. We’ve seen rookies that have come in and fallen off a lot. Casey Stoner comes to mind, when he was on that satellite Honda and trying to make a difference to the factory bikes and having to override it.

“But the point is he’s shown the speed and it feels a bit like that with Acosta. KTM have signed him for next year not because he can ride around safely in eighth place or something, but because he’s got the speed to raise the level of the bike.

“[Brad] Binder was sixth place, 18 seconds back, so to have a rookie come in and taking the fight… ok, he wasn’t there at the end, we didn’t get to see what he could do.

“But in the sprint he got it to 2/3 distance and was starting to pull away and maybe just overdid it.

“It’s going to be an upsetting one, a frustrating one for him but it’s just all part of the learning curve for him. But the important thing is the speed. Let’s see where he goes from here.”

Crash Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan said: “I think the Casey Stoner comparison is a really, really good one.

“We’ve seen in the two Misano races he’s had good pace but two crashes there. It’s easy to forget that Pedro is a rookie.

“We put so much pressure on him because it’s like ‘wow, look at this performance’. This is the guy who blazed a trail through the junior categories and you expect results straight away, which is a little bit unfair really.

“We saw from Friday, and I think even Pecco said at the time, Pedro is a threat here. 
“If you look at his long run pace versus Binder’s long run pace; ok, Binder had the one-lap speed, but he was not even remotely a consideration for that race.

“I think that’s the thing Pedro and KTM needs to take away from this weekend, just how big a step ahead he was of the other KTM riders.

“That was impressive. Yes, he crashed. Yes, he does need to start ironing out those mistakes because they have been a bit too numerous lately. But the consistency has been there. This is basically since Aragon now he’s really turned things around.”