“I was trying to copy Pecco Bagnaia’s movements” – Pedro Acosta

Pedro Acosta impressed once again by finishing third in the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix – achieving a podium in only the second round of his career. During Sunday’s race in Portimão, the young Red Bull GasGas Tech3 rider didn’t focus on the result, but rather on learning from other riders… including the champion of the last two years.

When asked if he believed it was possible to finish in the top five, the Spanish rider replied in a press conference: ‘In the end, I was taking the speed. This situation is much more normal for me, with a full tank, several laps… at the moment the Sprint races are very… I’m not very comfortable in this situation, because you see these riders pushing from the start without worrying, and I’m having some problems with the small tank. But, in any case, in the end I was quite comfortable on the bike in both races, also in Qatar, to make overtakes. This feeling with the front tire is so familiar from my days in Moto3 and the Rookies Cup‘.

According to Acosta, the focus was not on the result, but on observing the opponents: ‘I wasn’t focused on the top five, I was just focused on understanding how the race was, understanding how I need to save the tires, because in Qatar we saw that I had a lot of difficulties at the end of the race. I was also trying to mimic Pecco’s movements with my body [Bagnaia] because he is one of the best at saving tires in Sunday races. So I’m happy, because I was able to learn several things from following him. It was good‘.

Despite trying to learn from Bagnaia, #31 finds it more difficult to do the same with the KTM factory team riders, Brad Binder and Jack Miller: ‘I was just thinking about passing them. To be honest, I’ve been studying a lot of Pecco to see how he was moving his body and playing with the bike’s angle. But with KTM, it’s very complicated to understand behind them in race mode, because sometimes with the wind and turbulence, your head is moving and you’re not 100 percent focused on seeing the bikes or how they are playing with the bike. But it’s true that on Saturday maybe we were losing a lot in turns 4 and 5 and then on the exit from turn 5 to 6, and in the main race seeing how Pecco was playing with the bike and body helped me a bit to ride during the race‘.