Thanks to being a rookie in MotoGP, Pedro Acosta was one of the riders who could participate in the Sepang shakedown that ended on Saturday. And the Red Bull GasGas Tech3 rider made a good impression, being the fastest of the three days with a time close to the Malaysian circuit record lap.
The young Spaniard spoke about the shakedown: ‘It wasn’t too bad. The good thing is that we did a lot of laps. We also came with a clear idea of which areas we had to improve compared to the Valencia test. It is true that Valencia was very short. We enjoyed it a lot, we took a really good step and it was solid – because every day we got on the track and were able to do the same lap time on the first morning lap. Usually that’s not very easy for me, to be fast in the morning‘.
As for being the fastest with a time close to the circuit record, Acosta downplayed it: ‘It means nothing. In the end, what was important to me was being able to have a good rhythm with the used tire. That was important to me because on the second day we tested the long distance and the rhythm was, on average, 2m00s medium/2m00s high, and on the last day it was 1m59s medium/1m59s high. We also improved in the long distance, that was important to me. And also all the steps we took were very solid‘.
When asked if he was surprised by how comfortable he felt on the bike so far, #31 replied: ‘To be honest, I don’t expect anything. It is true that KTM and GasGas have been very focused on helping me understand the bike, understand the electronics, and understand everything. I think it’s a normal learning curve‘.
