Pedro Acosta “not happy”, laments KTM rear grip woes

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Pedro Acosta has blamed a lack of rear grip for his underwhelming performance in the Argentinian MotoGP Sprint.

The Spanish rider started the half-distance race at Termas de Rio Hondo strongly, challenging for the top-five positions, but ultimately faded to ninth by the end.

The problem for Acosta was rear grip, which deteriorated rapidly – an issue which has been apparent for KTM since the Buriram test.

Acosta said that the rear grip woes are a sign that KTM is regressing.

"It was three very good laps until we started sliding,” Acosta said after the Sprint, as reported by Spanish Motorsport.com.

“What happened is the result of many components together. We are going backwards rather than forwards. It is not normal for the grip to fall so much.”

The two-time World Champion added that the RC16 needs move load on the rear tyre to generate more grip.

"I'm not happy. It's very difficult to understand many things,” he said.

“We have to try to understand how we can load the rear axle more so that the power is transferred to the ground.

“We have the bike that is most out of place, and that makes you lose the rear axle faster. We are skidding all the time.”

He added: “We have to understand why we can't transfer power to the ground. Whether it's through the swingarm or the front.

“What we have to find out is where the problems come from. I tried to run those four laps without forcing the tyres, but it didn't help.”