Pedro Acosta “knew Assen was not going to be easy for me”

Pedro Acosta salvaged a top ten finish during the Dutch MotoGP sprint after a difficult Friday where he was only 15th fastest.

The sensational rookie has been unable to trouble the top riders in the championship, which has often been the case in 2024.

But Acosta has not been surprised by his struggles this weekend, admitting Assen was always viewed as a tricky round by himself and the GASGAS Tech 3 KTM outfit.

Acosta said: “From the start, we knew that Assen was not going to be an easy one for me. I have to say that we made very interesting steps today after we struggled a bit on day 1.

“In the morning, we were feeling good in FP2 and then in qualifying too. In the sprint, we had a good pace, we were much faster and more competitive than yesterday, but we had a small issue at the rear from the first lap, which caused a bit of stability loss.

“I managed, but it was not that easy! We’ll study everything tonight, and make sure that we go into the main race fully prepared."

Acosta’s team-mate Augusto Fernandez was only 17th in the sprint as his second season - likely to be his last in MotoGP - shows no signs of improvement.

Fernandez added: "We saw some light again in the sprint today, after a very bad qualifying this morning, probably the worst for me. The feeling on the bike was so bad.

“Our base this afternoon was good, I felt much better and confident, so we will work hard tonight, starting from that base we used, and we will try finding some improvements to give us a chance to get a bit closer to the guys in the race."