After a difficult weekend, during which he was further back than usual, Pedro Acosta seemed to have found some solutions with his team on Sunday. Starting from seventh on the grid, he made a very good start and climbed to third place in just three laps.
However, just three laps later, the ordeal began for the KTM rider. Clearly suffering from low front tire pressure, he had to let Marc Marquez pass to make up ground. Unfortunately for him, it was no use. As the race progressed, he was again forced to move aside to allow Ai Ogura and then Enea Bastianini to get in front of him.
Finishing sixth, he was understandably frustrated given the pace he'd shown at the start of the race. Nevertheless, he didn't receive a penalty and his efforts weren't in vain. But, unexpectedly, he explained that his problem wasn't directly caused by the pressure and that he'd encountered a more serious issue.
"In reality, the problem was not with the tire pressure, but with another factor that aggravated the situation. The pressure was simply a consequence: the front tire remained cold for a reason I don't know and which shouldn't happen ," he said during his debriefing.
“We don’t understand how it’s possible to ride with such a cold front tire, but as a result, the pressure was low. I used the same setup as all weekend and I’d never encountered this problem before. So now we need to understand how it happened. The strategy was right this time. I’m happy with the decision to take a risk. We turned things around after the way the weekend started, and today we had a chance to finish fourth.”
“In the end, you attack, you go fast, then you let a rider through, you lose your rhythm, you find yourself in the same situation, you let another rider through and you lose your rhythm again. It’s a very irregular race, but that’s how it is. I’m happy with how I managed the situation. I just barely made it into the limits ,” he added.
“It’s a bit frustrating because at the start of the race, when the tire was warm, I had a good pace and was ahead of Marc. I couldn’t have beaten him, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the pace he showed from mid-race onwards, but I could have finished fourth, close to the podium, which would have been a pretty satisfying result considering our start to the weekend.”
In summary: what information should we remember about Pedro Acosta after the Qatar Grand Prix?
- Peter Acosta made a very good start and was virtually on the podium by the third lap.
- The KTM rider encountered a problem with his front tire and was forced to let Marc Marquez, Ai Ogura and Enea Bastianini pass him as the race progressed.
- He nevertheless explained that the problem did not come directly from the tire pressure, which was only a consequence of a tire that remained very cold.
Results of the Qatar Grand Prix :
Photo credit and ranking: MotoGP.com
