KTM\u2019s Pedro Acosta says \u201cthe only strategy was to attack from the start\u201d of the MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix sprint, as he used \u201cbig balls\u201d to get up to second.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old was one of the favourites to fight for victory after Friday practice, but was left on the back foot after qualifying fifth.<\/p>\n
A rocket start saw Pedro Acosta<\/a> muscle his way into the podium places at Turn 1 of the 13-lap sprint, before a strong move on polesitter Marco Bezzecchi for second at Turn 2.<\/p>\n Acosta was able to break away with eventual winner Alex Marquez<\/a>, but a mistake on lap five at Turn 8 dropped the KTM<\/a> almost a second adrift, from which he could not recover.<\/p>\n Asked how he was able to get to second at the start, Acosta replied: \u201cBig balls, my man. I mean, it was clear that the only strategy was to attack from the start.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cAfter that, everything became easier because I only had to follow Alex.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s true that I made a small mistake arriving at Turn 8, locking the front and going back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt cost me and it was difficult to close this gap back, because with the soft we were having a really similar pace. I think we did a good race.\u201d<\/p>\n Acosta admits he was thinking about going against the grain and running the medium rear, owing to the KTM\u2019s difficulties in preserving its rubber.<\/p>\n But he elected to go with the majority soft option to \u201chave the same tools\u201d as the leaders.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n He is hopeful that the change to the medium for the grand prix on Sunday will help him take a step forward, though that won\u2019t fix the \u201cnightmare\u201d lack of traction the RC16 still has.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you remember Qatar, we were struggling a lot with tyres,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we just changed the tyre and it was better.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe tomorrow can be a day like this. It\u2019s true that we still need a lot of traction because, now, it\u2019s a nightmare for us.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyway, we are making good races without that. So, we have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Sunday represents Acosta\u2019s last chance to stop his winless streak in MotoGP stretching to two full seasons.<\/p>\n However, he says he isn\u2019t approaching the grand prix as win or bust.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I have to keep going with my podium stretch,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m learning a lot from that, and I think I\u2019ve grown a lot since I had this consistency.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to keep going. I mean, one day will have to be our day.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cWe know we have a lot of limitations, even more in short distances, in sprint races or time attacks. But I think tomorrow can be a good day for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KTM\u2019s Pedro Acosta says \u201cthe only strategy was to attack from the start\u201d of the MotoGP Valencia Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,10734,10670,85],"class_list":["post-286897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-pedro-acosta","tag-red-bull-ktm-factory-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}