Pedro Acosta: ‘Pace of the top guys’ but losing at the start

MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta finished Saturday’s Portimao Sprint in seventh place, his best race finish so far in the premier-class.

The GASGAS Tech3 rookie was classified 5.088s behind Aprilia race winner Maverick Vinales but had lost +2.367s compared to early leader Jack Miller on the opening lap alone, as he dropped to eleventh place.

Acosta then set the second fastest lap of the race and, without the time lost on the opening lap, should have been on the brink of the podium battle.

“The start,” Acosta said bluntly of what he needs to improve for Sunday. “If you see, I lost a lot of time in the first lap. 2.5s. Then finally it was 5s from Maverick.

“Now I lose less time during the race, if we take out the first lap. We were in the pace of the top guys.

“It’s true in the last laps what Maverick did was out of this world. [But] we are fast and there. We are not only making one flying lap.

“For this we need to be more focussed on the start. Tomorrow we’ll try another setting in the clutch. Maybe I do something strange with the clutch as I come from a cable clutch and not a hydraulic one.

“Anyway, we need time on the bike, more laps, to be more fit on the bike. It’s just my 12th day on the bike so we need time.”

While insisting that he needs to be happy with what they are already achieving, Acosta’s face said otherwise.

“I'm more happy than angry [but], like I said in Qatar, it’s quite easy to see how I feel in my face...” he admitted.

“The whole weekend I was improving the way that I ride, making big steps.

“I say again, we’re on the way, and the guys in the Pierer Mobility Group are coming with things to help me.

“We need to be more than proud of the boys that are behind the project and the work behind the team.”

Acosta spectacularly reached as high as fourth in the season-opening Qatar MotoGP, before dropping back to ninth.

The top KTM of Jack Miller was 0.7s ahead of Acosta, in fifth, during the Saturday Sprint.