Pedro Acosta, from Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, went from showing his frustration to expressing his satisfaction during the San Marino Grand Prix, thanks to the modifications made by KTM on his bike. After suffering issues in the last event, the Austrian team made adjustments that allowed Acosta to achieve a podium.
Following strong performances in Silverstone and Aragon, Acosta was preparing for a challenging weekend in Misano. In the sprint race, he finished in sixth position, showing difficulties in braking his bike, which increased his frustration, visible in the television images.
However, Sunday was a different day. Acosta made an impressive start from ninth position and quickly moved up to fourth behind Alex Marquez. When Jorge Martin let the first position slip, Acosta emerged as a contender for victory, although he ultimately settled for third place, thus achieving his fifth podium of the season.
Acosta admitted that he and KTM felt ‘lost’ during the first days, but acknowledged the team’s effort to reverse the situation. ‘I am happy because it seems that we have improved the bike compared to yesterday. In fact, we have changed the whole bike,’ he said.
Although Acosta did not detail which modifications improved his braking performance, he mentioned that they returned to the set-up used during practice. ‘We went back a bit to the set-up from Friday, and it seems to have worked. In the end, I felt good when braking again,’ he added.
With KTM addressing the engine reliability issues that had affected the first half of the season, the team can now focus on improving the bike’s performance. Acosta praised the hard work of the team and their openness to new ideas to advance the RC16 in the last year of the 1000cc MotoGP era.
‘Sometimes, you have to be angry to deliver the best performance,’ he concluded. ‘The guys are working very hard and are very open to hearing new ideas and changing the bike.’
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
