Pedro Acosta: Vinales, Rins had crazy corner speed, I said ‘I can do that too!’
The reignin♉g Moto2 champion, who was earlier seen drifting his GASGAS-liveried machine into the final corner, joked he was eventually caught out after trying to mimic the corner speed of Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins.
“The crash came because I made a mistake in Turn 1, then I had a m꧒ovement between 1 and 2 and I was too much on the left to achieve the correct [line],” Acosta explained.
“But to be honest, I saw Maverick an♚🌱d Rins having crazy corner speed, and I said, ‘I can do that too!’
“ꦅIt was totally my fault. But anyway, it was good also to understand what I cannot do.”
Acosta finished his debut in 18th place on the timesheets, just ahead of new Yamaha rider Rins a𓆏nd only 1.2🐼23s from leader Vinales (Aprilia).
“It was better than my dream,” Acosta sa🦋id of his performance. “Because we have to be realistic. I cannot arrive here and say, 'I will destroy the lap record'.
“It's true I am super happy🌱 to be all day between +1 and 1.7s, it was super nice to be in this area. I think that the level i꧟s not so different from the first to the last [rider in MotoGP], and small things make big gaps.
“You can see also on my last flying lap, I lost everything in the last sector. We have to under🍷stand how to ride and how and when to use some tools [feature♌s of the bike]. But anyway, it was a really good day.”
The Spanish teenager was also satisfied to see th๊at his riding style was already comparable with the other RC16 riders.
“We compared myself to all the KTM riders, between Augusto a♕nd all these things. It's true that it's not so different. It becomes quite normal.
“It's not a Moto2 bike,ꦜ that is maybe a mix [racing chas✤sis, production engine], this is a real racing bike.
“But anyway, it was good. The important thing is the team⭕ was really focused to [give me] a really good first imဣpression about the bike.”
Acosta will be working wi🌜th ex-Pol Espargaro crew chief Paul Trevathan at Tech3 ℱnext season.
“My crewꦏ chief Paul has been here since the [KTM MotoGP] project started with Pol. Before I went out he said, "If you want to change something,🀅 tell me, I am here for you". And I said, "No, I am here for you!"
“He knows how to help me understand how to ride, he knows perfectly that you need to prepare the bike for this. I'm quite happy to be in this group of people. They are amazing.✃”
Acosta’s next MotoGP outing will be🅠 at Sepang in February.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentin🔯o ෴Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
