Pedro Acosta: “Everything was too nice” before warm-up crash, start ‘a disaster’

Pedro Acosta has been nothing short of sensational during his rookie MotoGP season so far.

Four rounds in and Acosta has claimed podiums in either the sprint or grand prix at every event except the season-opener in Qatar. 

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Acosta, who took advantage of several riders crashing in front of him during the sprint on Saturday, had to force his way back through the field during the grand prix following early contact with Johann Zarco.

Acosta was sent wide by the LCR Honda rider, losing eight positions between that incident and the first corner where he also lost places.

“It was a learning weekend,” said the GASGAS Tech 3 rider. “Everything before that was going too nice. We have to be happy.

“We made a good weekend and we know that we need to avoid these mistakes in qualifying and starting in the back.

“All the problems started from that. Also, we need to avoid things like crashing in warm-up.

“It’s not the best way to destroy one MotoGP bike, but anyway, we are on the way.”

Prior to the grand prix, Acosta had to shake off a huge fall in warm-up at turn seven.

The Spaniard, along with his RC16 machine, was sent barrel-rolling into the air fence.

Following the race Acosta had one of his fingers on his right hand heavily taped, but that didn’t dampen his confidence levels.

“About my confidence, everything was okay,” stated Acosta. “From the mechanics, from Dani [Pedrosa], from Augusto [Fernandez], from Brad [Binder], from Jack [Miller] and everyone in KTM, to repair my bike is one-hour-and-a-half is not easy and they did everything they could to have two bikes ready. So proud of them.

“Talking about the race, the start was tough and the clutch felt a little bit different and then I was a bit slower.

“The disaster was turn one and not the start. Then, everything was a bit difficult because Jerez is not the easiest track to overtake.

“Then, Zarco was maybe a little bit slower than I expected but it was difficult to pass him. But we recovered positions.

“It was a bad day but we were in the top ten and this was our target this season.”