Pedro Acosta: 'The bike went one way, I went the other. It was a big one'

Pedro Acosta emerged unharmed from an incident packed Friday at the Austrian MotoGP but will need to battle through Qualifying 1 after missing out on a top-ten place.

The MotoGP rookie fell three times from his RC16, a small lowside at the Turn 2 chicane being swiftly followed by a scary, session-stopping 300km/h accident as he touched the brakes at Turn 4 in the final minutes of the morning.

“In Turn 2 it was a cold tyre to be honest, because I was waiting for Pol who was behind,” Acosta told MotoGP.com

“So I crashed, restarted the bike, made a full lap. And I said ‘OK, if the tyre is cold, I will have time to warm it up.’

“The only thing I was not expecting was that the centre of the tyre was [still] cold, because it was cold-cold… And at the moment when I touched the brake, I was losing the front.

“Thanks to God, the bike went in one direction and I went in the other. Because it was a big one. 

"Anyway, everything was OK.”

The final accident, again a lowside, came on an out lap in the afternoon and saw Acosta jump to his feet before his bike had stopped moving.

But it ended any direct Q2 chances.

“With the hard front [tyre] it was quite tricky to ride because also in FP2 [afternoon] I tried and crashed in the out-lap. This one was quite strange and I still need time to understand why,” said the GASGAS Tech3 rider.

“We lost a lot of time today with the crashes... But tomorrow, if we are calm and have time to work, for sure we will be better.”

Acosta’s Saturday morning goal will be to advance through Qualifying 1 and claim a top-six place in qualifying.

“First of all, we need to pass to Q2 and then be in the first two rows of the grid. I see ourselves and Pierer Mobility in general with the pace to be in these two rows.”

Brad Binder was the only RC16 rider to claim direct Q2 access with fifth place on Friday.