Pedro Acosta was the first to be surprised by his performance this Sunday, just 12 days after his hand surgery.
If there's one driver who's satisfied on the evening of the German Grand Prix, it's... Peter AcostaThe Spanish driver had arrived at the Sachsenring after two very complicated GPs, where he had only finished one of the four races contested, between an error on his part, a technical issue and a physical problem.
In addition to this, numerous breakdowns during testing, plus one during the race, severely tested his nerves. But more than the technical issues, it was the carpal tunnel syndrome he was suffering from that particularly hampered him, to the point of forcing him to retire at Assen two weeks ago.
Having undergone surgery immediately afterward, he didn't know what to expect this weekend, but remained optimistic given that the German circuit is predominantly left-handed, and that it was his right hand. While he wasn't as strong as he would have liked in qualifying and the sprint race, where he still finished in the top 10, he managed to deliver a solid performance on Sunday.
Climbing lap after lap from eighth on the grid, he seized fourth position on lap nine and held it until the finish. At one point very close to Ai Ogura ahead, he was within striking distance of the podium before his tire performance collapsed. But no matter, it's a Peter Acosta particularly smiling, he arrived at his debriefing.
"I'm super happy! It was perhaps a surprise to everyone to see us fighting so 'close' to the podium, in quotes.", did he declare. “We struggled all weekend and today we managed to finish in the top 4. The strategy was to attack during the first 10-12 laps and then see how the tires reacted. It's true that I was a little surprised because the tire wear came later than expected and we were quite competitive until lap 17, after which we started to have difficulties, and Ogura pulled away.”
“We already knew that with the medium rear tire, front-end management would be less critical. The first real drop in performance came around lap 17, and that's when I started to lose competitiveness. But we have to be happy: I think I managed the tires well, we attacked when we needed to, and we were competitive at the start of the race.”
"Up until the 20th round, I more or less enjoyed myself. The last ten, however, were a disaster."he said. “It felt like I was driving on ice, just trying not to overheat the tires and hold on until the checkered flag. The group broke up very quickly. I think by lap ten there was Marc, the two Trackhouse drivers, me, and the fifth driver was already four seconds behind. Not exactly the best show. But as a driver, I had fun until lap twenty.”
“I’m happy, we scored points and finally achieved a good result after the two disastrous weekends in Brno and Assen. My hand was great, I could feel my fingers throughout the race. Now it’s time to rest a bit, get the stitches out and enjoy the summer.”
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Classification credit: MotoGP.com
