Pedro Acosta described the Japanese Grand Prix as his first “tough” race in a “really long time”, as a “strange” issue left him struggling in seventh place.
Fresh off his maiden MotoGP win at the Austrian Grand Prix, Acosta endured a relatively lacklustre weekend at Motegi, despite showing strong pace over a single lap to qualify on the front row.
Racing the hard rear tyre like the rest of the field, Acosta immediately dropped two places on the opening lap, before slipping as low as eighth place.
Later on in the race, he mounted a comeback and overtook Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez in quick succession to grab fifth, but the two Trackhouse riders immediately demoted him back to seventh.
Speaking afterwards, Acosta explained that he couldn’t make Michelin’s stiffer rear tyre work at Motegi, leaving him struggling under both braking and acceleration.
“It was a tough one; a really long time without a tough one,” he said. “It looks like we didn’t match the bike with the tyres. I don’t know why I was struggling a lot to stop the bike and even then, to try to have some grip in the drive area.
“But anyway, P7 is not a disaster. It’s true that not our day also, but I’m quite happy to see that all the KTM were quite fast, [with Enea Bastianini] bringing a P4 home.
“Like this, we have some data to check what we did wrong.”
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Acosta wasn’t convinced that the change in tyre construction was the only reason behind his lack of pace on Sunday, saying he needed to look into the data to gain a better understanding of the situation.
“I don’t think that just changing the tyres meant Enea was that fast and I was that slow. There has to be something around what we don’t really know.
“The bike was feeling good, taking out the brakes and in the exit of the corners. The way the bike was working felt normal.
“Really strange. Now we have to check all the data with the team, because it’s something that was the first time that I have this feeling.”
Acosta admitted that it wasn’t easy to overtake riders given his struggles with braking and acceleration, leaving him stuck behind Fernandez and Ogura in the closing stages of the race.
“I was not having grip in braking, but also not in drive at the beginning,” he said.
“Then, it was not bad, but I was not faster; they just went slower. And then I had another drop at the end. I don’t know, it is so strange.”
He added: “I was struggling a lot to pass. That is not so normal for me.
“When I tried to pass back Raul, I started to spin, I remained stuck, and then Ogura passed me back, and then I didn’t have any more chances.
“But anyway, I hope that the fans enjoyed it.”
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