Pedro Acosta, on his debut in the MotoGP premier class, finished the test day in Valencia in 18th position and with many laps completed at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
In a debrief, he spoke about the sensations of the test day and his debut riding a MotoGP bike for the first time.
– ‘ After a day of testing it doesn’t make sense to talk about the championship. I’m going to talk about the bike which is incredible, I’m going to be very competitive very soon. You can see how many people are working on the bike and we’ll be very competitive for sure, I don’t know if next year, but I’m going to be very competitive. I think managing the electronics over a long distance is incredible, but what surprised me most is the amount of people waiting for us in the pits. It’s been good to see the help the factory team is giving us and giving opinions on how I should ride it, I’m very happy. I can’t say just one thing about the new sensations on the bike, but the thing that stands out the most is the importance of maintaining the temperature of the brakes. I really liked the bike today, of course being 18th isn’t what I want, but in this case it was very good. Pol helped me a lot, he understands very well how I have to ride and prepare the bike, I’m very happy with this group and they’ve helped a lot, it’s been a good day.
Asked about the difference between riding a MotoGP bike and one in the Moto2 class, Acosta replied: ‘ I watched some videos before riding and I told myself that I couldn’t see myself riding a bike like this. The truth is that it’s not that different, in the end they’re all racing bikes, but the most impressive thing is that the way you approach a corner is very similar to the approach on a Moto3 bike, but in any case it was good and the team helped me a lot to adapt to the bike as quickly as possible.
At the end, Pedro Acosta spoke about the crash that occurred during the tests, the first since he got on a MotoGP bike.
– ‘ The crash happened because I entered turn 1 wrong and had the wrong body position and before entering turn 2 I wasn’t right, but one thing I noticed was the speed of Viñales or Rins in the corner and I thought to myself “I have to be able to do that too”, but I don’t think anything serious happened with the crash, it was good that it happened to understand what I can and can’t do’.