Pedro Acosta, rider of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, experienced a weekend of contrasts during the San Marino Grand Prix, going from being visibly frustrated with the bike to celebrating a third place on the podium thanks to his team’s improvements.
After strong performances in Silverstone and Aragon, Acosta was preparing for a challenging race in Misano. He faced braking issues during the sprint race, finishing in sixth place with a considerably slow time, losing more than half a second per lap compared to the winner, Marc Márquez.
However, Sunday’s race was completely different. Acosta made an impressive start from ninth position, quickly moving up to fourth place behind Alex Márquez. As Jorge Martín dropped from first to fifth, Acosta became a potential candidate for victory, closing the gap with the Márquez brothers. Despite having to withdraw from an intense battle, he managed to maintain third place and celebrate his fifth podium of the season.
Acosta acknowledged that he and the team felt “lost” during the first days of the weekend, but praised KTM for the improvements made overnight. “I am happy because it seems we have improved the bike since yesterday. In fact, we changed the whole bike,” he explained.
The rider pointed out that the adjustments made to the Friday setup played a key role in his final performance. “We went back to the Friday setup and it seems to have worked better. In the end, I felt good when braking,” he said.
Having overcome the engine reliability issues that affected the first half of the season, the team can refocus on performance. Acosta highlighted KTM’s determination: “Sometimes, you have to get angry to deliver your best performance. But it is true that the team works very hard and is open to new ideas to improve the RC16 during this final year of the 1000cc MotoGP category.”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
