Pedro Acosta looks beyond Austin podium and raises a question mark

In the Austin GP, Pedro Acosta took a solid third place, finishing behind the Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin. Thanks to this result, the Spaniard was able to confirm his third place in the riders’ standings, 21 lengths behind Bezzecchi, who just in Texas took his fifth consecutive victory (speaking of Sunday races and including the last two of last year). On the sidelines of the U.S. weekend, the Spanish ‘Shark’ commented on his performance to the microphones of ‘Marca’.

“I’m very happy and I have to thank KTM, also because I destroyed the bike in the warm-up,” he said. “All the guys in the team and also the Tech3 guys worked to fix it and make it available. Acosta revealed that he was also satisfied because his goals, after the pre-season, were other: “I’m back on the podium after the penalty in the Sprint: the goal this early in the season was to reach the top 5, but we’ve raised the bar and we’re getting on the podium, so we have to be happy about that.”

The 2004 class also talked about the no-holds-barred battle on the track in the early laps with Jorge Martin: “I had to play my cards and one of them was to push right away to stay in front in the early stages. The Aprilias are really consistent in the changes of direction, neither Marco nor Jorge make mistakes and it’s hard to chase them down if you make a mistake.”

Acosta was also pleased for his brand mate Enea Bastianini, who finished sixth after also battling with Marc Marquez: “I’m very happy to have seen Bastianini take a big step forward: a rider of his level is not normal to have to struggle as much as he did.” Acosta, though, admitted that the KTM still cannot be considered a top bike: “We need a configuration that allows us to be as fast as Enea was this weekend: this would allow us to improve even more, but Aprilia and Ducati remain two steps ahead.”

Looking ahead to the Jerez weekend, Acosta expressed another doubt, as for him each circuit presents a new question mark: “Time will tell what can happen. Outside of Europe the bike worked well and we were able to keep up with Ducati and Aprilia, but the reality is that we don’t have everything to win. Aprilia and Ducati seem to adapt well to each circuit, Jerez will be another question mark.”