PEDRO ACOSTA CALLS HIS MISANO SPRINT FIGHT WITH ALDEGUER “STUPID”

Pedro Acosta admitted he was frustrated with how the Misano Sprint played out, after finishing sixth and feeling that a close scrap with Fermin Aldeguer turned into a “stupid” episode that cost both riders time.

Aldeguer started third but was quickly squeezed back to fourth at turn four on the opening lap when Fabio Di Giannantonio pushed through. Acosta, who had qualified seventh, benefited from the early chaos and edged ahead of Aldeguer into Turn 8 on the opening lap, moving into fifth. The pair then traded positions into turn nine, where they both ran wide and allowed Alex Marquez to get through. Aldeguer also lost further ground to Raul Fernandez and ultimately crossed the line eighth, while Acosta never managed to improve beyond sixth after lap one.

Speaking after the Sprint, Acosta was blunt about the nature of the contest. “We both made a few stupid mistakes with Fermin, and that cost us a lot of time,” he said. He added that the back-and-forth had a direct impact on their pace. “This cost us a lot of time, because I think without this battle, both should be more close to Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio] and Martin in that moment, you know?” Despite his criticism of how the fight unfolded, Acosta insisted it wasn’t simply about blame or unfairness. “In any case, it was a fair battle, competitive stuff,” he said, before adding: “But anyway, it's what it is, the battle was fair enough; for this, racing.”

Aldeguer, meanwhile, said Saturday had started well but ended with disappointment. “For sure a good Saturday, maybe not the result that we wanted in the Sprint,” he said. He explained that one of his goals for the weekend was to improve qualifying, and that he delivered it with his best Q2 of the season, taking third. In the Sprint, his plan had been to follow the front two, but the first lap disrupted that intention. “In the Sprint the strategy was to try to follow Bezzecchi and Marc [Marquez], but Diggia [Di Giannantonio] overtook me in the fourth corner, also Martin.”

Aldeguer also pointed to the way the fight with Acosta developed. “But anyway we did a good fight with Pedro [Acosta] and we have information for tomorrow.” He said he enjoyed the duel, adding that Alex Marquez gained two positions because the contact with Pedro opened space. “I think the last one in the ninth corner, 10th corner, with Raul [Fernandez] was a little bit limit because he slowed me during all the time and he arrived to touch me,” Aldeguer said. “I don’t know, the race direction didn’t say nothing, it’s because he’s inside of the limit, but it was a nice battle.”

Speedweek also reported that Acosta’s Q2 ended with a time of 1:30.640, leaving him to start from the third row. It described the opening phase as promising: after the first lap, he was running fifth and close to the leading group. It also put a figure on the damage from the Aldeguer duel, saying Acosta lost around 1.5 seconds to the front in the lap where the fight played out.

The tussle also came with a separate concern for Acosta: his braking and stopping. He said he was “in a lot of trouble” with his brakes in the Sprint, and that his difficulty stopping the bike was not normally his weakest area. “I have a lot of trouble stopping the bike. Normally, it’s not normally my weak point, but this weekend I’m struggling a lot, and we can’t find a solution. And that makes everything much more complicated.” He stressed that the issue was unusual for him and that it was affecting the entire weekend. “Somehow, it's not normally my weakest point, but it looks like this weekend I'm struggling a lot and we are not finding a solution. This makes everything much more difficult.” He also pointed out the knock-on effect of losing a key strength. “When you only have some strong points and you lose it, it's making everything even worse.”

While the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team was working hard to address the problem, Acosta said the solution still wasn’t there. “The team is working super hard to try to find everything out and try to find a solution. But at the moment, all the KTMs are having the same problem.” Speedweek added that teammate Brad Binder finished 14th, about ten seconds behind Acosta and outside the Sprint points, underscoring how widespread the issue was within KTM.

Aldeguer also offered his own explanation for why the Sprint slipped away after a strong start. He said his tyre pressure was not set for mid-pack temperatures, and that the poor first lap ruined his race. “We did the setting, the pressure of the tyre, to have only two bikes or maybe to be alone, without slipstream; and with five or six bikes it was difficult to manage.”

Acosta also addressed tyre talk around Misano. He felt the medium rear tyre champion Marc Marquez used wouldn’t have changed his fortunes, saying the tyre wasn’t one of his problems. “No, no [the soft rear would not have changed the race. I think it was the best we could do. If you look at Marc, the pace between the medium and soft was quite similar. So, the tyre wasn’t one of my problems.”

The Sprint result also reflected wider concerns for Acosta on Saturday. He explained that his problems began earlier in the day, noting that he had qualified only seventh before the underwhelming Sprint. With the Sprint already slipping away due to both the early battle and his braking/stopping difficulties, Acosta’s focus for the next phase of the weekend was clear: find a fix for the stopping issue so that his pace can return to the level he expects.