From “angry” to podium: How KTM turned around Pedro Acosta’s Misano weekend

Pedro Acosta says KTM “completely changed the bike” overnight to address issues that left him visibly “angry” during the San Marino Grand Prix weekend. 

After the highs of Silverstone and Aragon, Acosta was bracing for a difficult race at Misano, having struggled to stop his bike in the sprint. The Spaniard could only manage sixth in the half-distance contest, losing more than half a second to winner Marc Marquez with every lap. 

These braking issues came as a surprise to him, and his frustration was captured on the TV cameras.

But Sunday proved to be a completely different affair, with a swift launch from ninth propelling him to fourth behind Alex Marquez. After Jorge Martin dropped from first to fifth, Acosta even emerged as an outside contender for victory, as he closed to within a second of the Marquez brothers.

While he ultimately backed out of the fight after locking up at Turn 7, he comfortably hung on to third place, scoring his fifth podium of the season.

Acosta admitted that he and KTM felt “lost” earlier in the weekend, but praised the Austrian manufacturer for turning things around.

“I'm happy because it looks like we improved the bike from yesterday,” he said. “Well, at the end, we changed the whole complete bike. 

“We were quite lost the whole weekend and it was quite strange because normally here I'm quite fast and I was struggling the whole weekend with the braking point with the front tyre and it was quite difficult to understand for me. 

“There were a lot of doubts on the grid about whether I could finish on the podium,” he said.

“But anyway, the team did a good job last night. I don’t usually get very upset, but on Saturday I was, because we didn’t understand why certain things were happening. 

“Normally, that kind of thing gets me upset. And right up until Sunday morning, we were still a little unsure. But they did a great job.”

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team

Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images

Acosta didn’t offer a full explanation about what helped him rediscover the braking performance on the bike, other than revealing that KTM reverted to the set-up he had used in practice.

“We went back a bit to Friday’s bike set-up, and it seems to have worked more or less. In the end, I felt good under the brakes again. I could brake hard and attack, knowing we’re lacking a bit of performance under acceleration.”

With KTM having now addressed the engine issues that caused reliability concerns in the first half of the season, the team is able to switch its attention back to performance. 

Acosta said the Mattighofen-based marque is working “super hard” and willing to embrace “new ideas” to improve the RC16 in the final year of MotoGP’s 1000cc era.

“Sometimes you have to get angry to give your best performance,” he said. “But it's true that the guys were working super hard in the box. Even today, I was pushing Pit [Beirer] like, ‘buddy, if you give me what I need, I will be there. I don't know how, but I will be there’. 

“But anyway, I think the brand is working super hard. The guys are now super open to listening to new ideas and changing the bike around.”