Due to being a rookie in MotoGP, Pedro Acosta was one of the riders who could participate in the Sepang shakedown, which ended on Saturday. The Red Bull GasGas Tech3 rider made a good impression, being the fastest over the three days with a time close to the Malaysian circuit’s lap record.
The young Spaniard spoke about the shakedown: ‘Not so bad. The good thing is that we made a lot of laps. Also we came with a clear idea about which areas we had to improve from Valencia test. It’s true Valencia was quite short. We enjoyed a lot, we made a really good step and it was solid – because every day we arrived on track and we were able to do the same lap time in the first lap in the morning. Normally that is not so easy for me, to be quite fast in the morning’.
Regarding being the fastest with a time close to the circuit record, Acosta played it down: ‘It means zero. At the end for me the important thing was that I was able to have a good pace with the used tyre. That was important for me because in the second day we tried the long distance and the pace was, on average, 2m00s medium/2m00s high and in the last one was 1m59s medium/1m59s high. We also improved in the long distance, that was important for me. And also that all the steps we made were quite solid’.
Asked if he was surprised by how comfortable he has been on the bike so far, #31 replied: ‘To be honest I don’t expect anything. It’s true KTM and GasGas were quite focused to help me to understand the bike, to understand the electronics and to understand everything. I think it’s a normal learning curve’.