Qatar GP, Acosta’s KTM mystery: “Something strange happened”

A difficult start in Lusail for the KTM rider, who even finished outside the top 10 in practice: what happened to him on Friday?

The first day of MotoGP practice in Qatar ended with two RC16s securing direct entry to Q2 in qualifying, but neither was ridden by Pedro Acosta. That was Friday’s big surprise at the Lusail International Circuit. The two-time world champion could manage no better than 14th in practice, while Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder finished sixth and tenth, respectively.

The Spaniard is usually KTM’s benchmark, but something did not quite work as it should this time, leaving him with ground to make up. That does not mean he will not still be the most competitive rider for the rest of the weekend. We know he is not one to give up and will do everything he can to turn things around when facing difficulties—he should never be underestimated.

He had finished FP1 fourth, although the first session in Qatar is often not very representative because of the sand on the track and the conditions, which differ from those expected in practice, the sprint race and the main race.

Acosta encountered problems on his flying lap with the soft rear tyre and cannot understand why: "I expected this to be the toughest race of the year. But it’s true that something strange happened - reportsMotosan - because I was showing good pace and putting in a good flying lap on the used medium rear tyre, and then the time attack on the new soft tyre was a complete disaster. Something must have happened. Bastianini and Bradl put in a good lap, so we’ll see if we can make up some ground".

The future Ducati rider went into detail about how his RC16 felt with the soft tyre: "I was lacking a lot of grip, and the rear tyre’s braking performance was also very, very poor. Even compared with the medium rear tyre after 10, 11 or 12 laps, the new soft tyre felt quite strange".

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team will certainly have analysed the data in depth, and today they will try to put Pedro in a position to be fast on the soft tyre too—a crucial factor heading into qualifying and the sprint. If Bastianini and Binder made it into the top 10 but Acosta did not, then something clearly went wrong, and it can be fixed.

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