“I’m not looking for excuses.”

A few hours after a first pole position, obtained thanks to a canceled lap for Marc Márquez, Pedro Acosta was able to achieve his first success in a sprint race in Motegi, but he lost everything due to a fall. The Tech3 driver was overtaken by Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini at the start, before taking advantage of an error from the latter a few turns later and regaining the lead on the third lap. He was opening a small gap when he lost control of his KTM.

“It was a stupid mistake”admitted Acosta to journalists. On the official MotoGP website, he explained the circumstances of his fall: “I went out a little wide in turn 6 and I had a little more angle, I was a little wider than usual in turn 7.”

For Bagnaia, Acosta did not take unnecessary risks but was aggressive in a critical moment. “In my opinion, he was pushing hard but it was still within the limit”explained the Ducati rider. “It’s just that in that lap it had rained a little more and he kept pushing to really ride hard. It can happen. He can afford it.”

“When I thought I was going to slow down for a lap to cool down my front tire, it fell off”he added. “I don’t know how it would have ended, he was very fast anyway.”

Acosta did not want to hide behind the precarious conditions to justify his mistake. “I’m not looking for excuses, I’m looking for solutions”explained the Spaniard, specifying that he “it wasn’t raining, there was nothing” in the bend where he fell. “At the end of the day, this is not the time to make excuses and say there was oil on the track.”

The one who is now mathematically assured of finishing as the best rookie of the season even affirmed that the leaders were not rolling “not very fast” at the time of his fall: “I stayed sunk, I didn’t do anything different. Before my fall, at turn 5, […] I was sunk. I was attacking but let’s say it wasn’t out of control. The times were not incredible. You have to accept the mistake, that’s all.”

Acosta seems accustomed to this fact since he fell in the race after his only pole in Moto3, in Valencia in 2021, and after his first in Moto2, in France the following year: “It’s becoming a tradition to fall when I take my first pole, in all categories. Tomorrow will be the second time that I start first and normally the second time goes better.”

In his eyes, this pole was a less powerful moment than the prospect of victory: “Of course it was special but it was even more special to dream of this first sprint victory. We have to focus on tomorrow.”

A lesson to learn

Pedro Acosta does not want this fall to remain solely a disappointment, preferring to transform it into a useful experience for his learning of MotoGP. He also does not want it to take precedence over his current very good form, which allows him to fight more and more with the Ducati who are nevertheless largely dominant this season.

“I fell while I was performing well today. You have to remember the good things and the things that aren’t so good, namely the fall. You have to remember the positive, I was fast today, I was doing maybe my best sprint in MotoGP I’ve seen how the KTM is evolving because for four races we’ve been super strong, closer to the front in one race, further away in others, but we’ve been able to pull together. fight with them, in this top 4 or 5.”

“We have to be satisfied and know what we are improving. But that doesn’t take away that it was my fault and in another race, there will be a mistake coming from something else.”

“I have to say that with my fall in Moto2 at Le Mans, it was more painful, but this fall really made me grow”he recalled. “I hope that will be the case too. I said I was in a position to win. It happened at Le Mans and I crashed, it happened at MotorLand and I crashed, but I’m not didn’t fall while being first. […] despite the pain, this fall will only bring positive things.”

The Tech3 team makes no mistake and, rather than blaming its driver, Nicolas Goyon talks about a day “unforgettable and historic” for French training, emphasizing performance more than falling. “Arriving in Japan, we knew that the RC16 was working well here and that we would have a chance of doing something good, in addition to the very good form of Pedro Acosta”underlined the team manager. “But wow, Pedro took his first pole position in MotoGP, in his first season, which is an incredible performance.”

“He had a strong chance of a podium finish in the sprint, he got off to a great start, with great pace, he overtook big names like Bastianini and Bagnaia to lead most of the race. He was quite up to speed. comfortable and he tried to attack to open a bigger gap but unfortunately, he lost the front and fell while leading. It’s obviously sad but today’s performance gives us a lot of confidence for the race. tomorrow.”

A race for which Acosta does not want to get carried away: “It will be a difficult race, also for the choice of tire because no one has done many laps with the medium. We will see.”