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 Spanish rider spoke about the shakedown: ‘It wasn’t too bad. The good thing is that we did many 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 arrived at the track and were able to do the same lap time on the first morning lap. Normally that’s not very easy for me, being fast in the morning‘.
As for being the fastest with a time close to the circuit record, Acosta played it down: ‘It means nothing. In the end, what was important to me was being able to have a good rhythm with used tires. That was important to me because on the second day we tested the long distance and the rhythm was, on average, mid 2m00s/high 2m00s, and on the last day it was mid 1m59s/high 1m59s. 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 believe it’s a normal learning curve‘.
