ACOSTA SEES PODIUM POTENTIAL AS BASTIANINI SEEKS GREATER RIDER INFLUENCE

Pedro Acosta left Friday’s MotoGP action at Phillip Island encouraged by his pace, despite finishing eighth in the timed session. The KTM rider secured a place in Q2, meeting his main target for the day, and said his performance had exceeded expectations.

Acosta briefly topped the standings after setting a 1:27.208 on fresh soft tyres with about 20 minutes remaining. He was later pushed down to eighth, just behind KTM teammate Enea Bastianini, who finished seventh as the manufacturer’s leading rider. Aprilia occupied four of the top five positions.

“Honestly, it wasn’t bad. I’m happy; it went better than expected,” Acosta said. He felt quick early in the session and was pleased with both his race pace and first attempt at a fast lap. Problems during his second time attack, however, left him short of a stronger result.

The Spaniard identified bike stability as an area to address, particularly through the third sector. “It’s not a disaster, but I have some problems over one lap,” he said. His longer-run speed offered more reassurance: Acosta described his race pace as good and noted that a dry race at Phillip Island is usually long, while acknowledging there was still room to improve.

Bastianini also had to work through stability issues on his RC16, which moved around heavily in Phillip Island’s fast corners and was slower than usual through direction changes. “In the morning we suffered,” he said, explaining that the team had needed to make changes despite usually trying to avoid extensive setup alterations. Wind was another complication: Bastianini said it caused enough trouble that he made two unplanned trips back to the pits to seek a solution.

His route to seventh was not straightforward. After his first fast lap, he returned to the garage still 11th and thought, “Damn! I probably need to get more out of it.” The team then made changes that helped him produce his best time. Bastianini expects those adjustments could leave him at a disadvantage in Saturday’s qualifying and sprint, but said the circumstances would be different by then, with rain threatening to alter the conditions.

Acosta would also welcome a change in the weather. While some riders were hoping for dry conditions over the weekend, he said: “I’m knocking on wood and hoping the rain comes tonight.”

In the sprint, Acosta finished fifth after qualifying seventh in wet conditions. He made a strong start, passed Jack Miller and Raul Fernandez, and briefly ran fourth before Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi moved ahead. He said he pushed the tyres early to stay with the leaders, but “the others were simply faster.” With three laps left, he judged there was “nothing to gain in front and nothing to lose behind,” and focused on bringing the KTM home. He also reported that the bike’s instability worsened in the fast corners, costing time in the final turn and on the straight; the problem had been less pronounced in the wet and grew as the track dried.

Acosta stopped short of predicting a victory challenge, but believes KTM may have more to show. “Maybe it won’t be enough to fight for the win, but maybe for the podium,” he said.

Bastianini also backed renewed efforts to establish a riders’ union, saying discussions had begun to involve everyone and that the project, started two years ago, had yet to be completed. He argued that riders need a voice in decisions affecting MotoGP, including the proposed weekend schedule changes planned from 2027. “Power is important, and so far the teams have power,” he said. “But this MotoGP universe doesn’t exist without us, and we riders can’t exist without this MotoGP universe. That’s why we need to find common ground.”