Pedro Acosta arrived in MotoGP and immediately showed competitiveness, stepping onto the podium in just his second race. He does not demonstrate significant difficulties or delays in adapting to the premier class, while at Gresini Marc Márquez still has many instincts and automatisms that are not ideal for the Ducati.
Asked whether these different adaptation times are due to having spent many years with Honda or to his age, the #93 replied:
– As you know, when you are younger, you learn faster. But especially when you arrive in a new category, everything is new; you don’t have habits. And when just change, for example in Qatar I was controlling everything, but if you check all the mistakes came on that time attack.
And why those mistakes are happening at that moment? Márquez explained: ‘Because on time attack you just go by instinct. When I go by instinct there are still some automatic things that I forget. When I’m riding on the race, I understand everything. But these things will arrive because everytime I feel better and better’.
Indeed, it has been in qualifying sessions that Márquez has obtained his worst results: in Qatar, he was sixth on the grid, while in Portugal he only achieved the eighth position at the start. In the Sprint races, he managed two top-five finishes (fifth in Losail, second in Portimão), while in the main race in Qatar he finished fourth. In Portugal, he was only 16th after consistently fighting for the top five, following an incident with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) near the end.