After a first day of the Grand Prix MotoGP from Portugal which he finished in 11th position, Peter Acosta ultimately qualified 7th through Q1, then finished the 12-lap Sprint in the same position.
At the second meeting of the season, this is already a result that would delight any beginner entering the premier Grand Prix category, but we can sense that the baby shark already has long teeth...
Even though he was unable to take full advantage of the first session on Friday due to poor track conditions, the rookie Peter Acosta still managed to find his way around the roller coaster, a track he discovered for the first time on a MotoGP™ machine. His times were already very encouraging on Friday, and further progress was made this morning. After being second in Free Practice 2 just behind Maverick Vinales, the young shark had to go through his first Q1, known to be extremely difficult to get through.
However, Acosta brilliantly fought his way into the next session with an impressive time of 1'38.065, taking 2nd place 0,005 seconds behind Alex Marquez. You might think it's already a good thing that he managed to do this in his second weekend, but he continued to show his talent and worked his way up to the third row, in P7 with a time of 1'38.138, just 0.432 from pole. position.
As the lights went out at 15:00 p.m. local time for the Tissot Sprint with a bit of wind, Acosta did not get the best start and dropped to 11th place after the first lap behind Fabio Quartararo. He had a little trouble settling in in the first few laps, but after two laps he was back in Shark mode, and set a 1'38.678 on lap 3, and just like that, he was in 8th position behind Aleix Espargaro. On the next lap, the young rookie overtook the most experienced driver on the grid to move into 7th position behind pole sitter Enea Bastianini. He was able to run at an incredible pace until the end, slowly closing the gap to his rival in front, eventually finishing seventh. Acosta continued to shine on what was his second Saturday in MotoGP™, a performance highlighted by his fastest lap which was the second fastest lap of the day.
As usual, we report his words here without the slightest formatting.
Peter Acosta : “The departure, the departure. I mean, if you look, I lost a lot of time in the first lap, 2,5s from the first, and then I was 5 seconds behind Maverick. Now, I lose less time during the race than in Qatar, if we remove the first lap. We need to be more focused on the start. Tomorrow we will try all the clutch adjustments, because I am doing something strange with the clutch. Maybe it needs a clutch cable and not hydraulics, say, but whatever it is we need time. Sometimes we need to change the handlebars, sometimes we need to change some brake levers and these things, because we need more time on the bike, we need more revs, we need be more comfortable on the bike. »
You said that going through Q1 was different for you. You had a sort of learning process for yourself and for the team. What did you feel ? The pace of the day is obviously different when you don't have to…
“In the end, once you put the suit on for the session, you're there, about 1/2 hour with the suit. It's also quite stressful, you have FP2, Q1, total stress to go to Q2 again, with few tires because you have to save some for the sprint race. We were able to improve our position on the grid compared to Qatar, and thanks to this we are on the right track. »
What are the specifications of the bike today? Are these the same as Brad's? Do they tell you what you have?
“Ask Paul (Trevathan). I mean, I'm not my crew chief, I'm the guy on the bike. »
Pedro, you are a fastest lap specialist now: you did it in Qatar, and now you were very fast during the Sprint…
“Well, we were fast, we were at the pace of the best, we're here, we're not just doing one lap of the track and that's it. For this we must be happy. For sure we have to improve a lot of things, we have to improve the fit on the bike, we have to improve some settings, the laps or whatever, and for that we have to understand. It's only my 12th day on the bike, or something like that, not much, and for that we need time. »
Did you say earlier that you had a choice between cable and hydraulic clutch control?
“No, in Moto2 I had a cable clutch and here it’s with oil. »
Earlier you said you should be happy, but are you?
“Not completely, but happier than... Like I said in Qatar, it's quite easy to feel what I'm thinking on my face. It's true that all weekend I made progress, all weekend I improved the way I rode the bike, all weekend I made progress. We are on the right path. The guys from Pierer Mobility Group help me a lot to understand the bike and find new solutions to make my job easier. For this, we must be more than proud of the boys behind the project, and more than happy and proud of the work the team is doing. »
Results of qualifying-1 of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:
Results of qualifying-2 of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:
Results of the Sprint of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:
Credit rankings: MotoGP.com
