Pedro Acosta received high praise following the Portuguese Grand Prix, where the Spaniard picked up his maiden MotoGP podium in the premier class.
Acosta has been promoted to the top flight for this season and followed up an impressive ninth place on his debut outing in Qatar with third at Portimao.
“The rider of the day was Acosta,” Sylvain Guintoli told TNT Sports. “Unreal!”
“Just like in Qatar, he was on the attack.
“You could see the bike moving around a lot and normally that means you’re overworking your tyres, but he was able to keep that rhythm all the way.”
Michael Laverty added: “He is the gift that MotoGP needs right now.
All the talk of the aero and the difficulty of passing? He passed four of the hardest riders to pass – Miller, Binder, Marquez, Bagnaia.
“He made it look easy, it was effortless. Even his interview on the podium. He’s got everything – charisma, speed, style, he does it with panache!
“We’re going to be talking about him all season. What a rookie campaign, on the podium already!
“He was lucky with Vinales’ gearbox issue to get the podium but he earned it.”
The teenage sensation overtook Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia in the race before a last-lap crash from Maverick Vinales put Acosta on the rostrum.
Speaking post-race, Acosta handpicked his move on reigning champion Bagnaia as his favourite, stating: “I was spending many laps behind him. I tried it at Turn 1 but I was wide.
“I struggled to stop the bike and said ‘okay… I said ‘I need to catch him again’. The Pecco one was nice because it was the first one in Turn 3.”
When reflecting on the race itself, Acosta himself stated: “It was unbelievable, since the beginning of the race the bike was much better than [Saturday].
“It’s true that in a long-distance race with a fuel tank… it’s more natural for me. I have been racing like this all of my life.
“It’s quite new for us and I’m not 100% comfortable at the moment, but we are coming.
“We need to be super happy. We tried things in the warm-up to understand what we needed in the first lap, and it worked.”
This podium finish launches Acosta up to fifth in the Riders’ Championship, where he is situated as the second lead KTM competitor behind Binder.
