MotoGP’s newest rookie Pedro Acosta was satisfied with the limited number of mistakes he committed as he made an instant impression on his debut weekend in Qatar.
Acosta qualified in an impressive eighth and converted that starting spot in the Sprint, before going on to finish one place lower during the main grand prix in Losail.
The Tech3 GasGas rider was once as high as fourth and even pulled off a stunning overtake on Ducati debutant and MotoGP legend Marc Marquez going into Turn 1.
With degradation being pinpointed as the reason for his pace regressing in the closing stages, the Spaniard is well aware of what he needs to improve on in coming races.
“Well, I know that the managing of the tyres was not the best,” Acosta told Autosport.
“You see in Turn 10 I was completely smoking [the rear]. But this is also nice for TV! We cannot be so serious.
“Anyway, we have to be happy to make these mistakes because now we are going to have more information for Portimao and also we are going to be more ready.
“I mean, 22 laps and we only made one or two mistakes.
“It’s not so much. I mean, yesterday (in the sprint) in 11 laps we made much more mistakes. We need to be happy.”
The 19-year-old disclosed how he was feeling on the bike on the Tech3 GasGas KTM, which has left him well-poised to prevent the same outcome from occurring again.
“Not so bad, not so bad to begin with,” he said in reflection of his debut race. “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. Many things happened in 40 minutes.
“The start was not the best but then everything was super nice. The feeling with the front was super nice.
“From my first Moto3 season, I was never able to attack like this. I mean you see how much speed I was able to carry and stop the bike in the last moment – it was completely amazing. For this, we need to be more than happy.
“I learned a lot of things. I cannot say one,” he added.
“But in the end, I see what mentality they have. They were super smooth, were not doing any crazy things, were not burning the tyres.
“They were riding fast. I mean, maybe I didn’t have the pace to go with them to the end but maybe I also burnt the tyres too much for this.
“Anyway, we need to improve the start and be with them from the beginning and try to be a little bit more relaxed. It was a good day, after all.”
