PEDRO ACOSTA SAYS KTM’S MISANO SET-UP PLAN IS WORKING AFTER PROMISING FRIDAY

Pedro Acosta said KTM’s “plan is working” after a promising Friday at Misano during the San Marino Grand Prix, despite a crash in FP1 that briefly disrupted his day.

The KTM Factory Racing rider ended Friday sixth overall, just 0.344s behind the best pace set by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi. Acosta brushed off the morning incident and described the overall direction as positive. “At the end, the crash of this morning took us a bit of time away, but quite happy also,” he said. He added that the bike’s behaviour and tyre feel were encouraging: “Pace was quite good. Tyres, feeling was quite good.”

Acosta also pointed out that while he felt the day was strong, it wasn’t a perfect “time attack” session for him. “Missing a bit in time attack, but it's not our strong point. P6, not so far. 1m30.4s, it was my qualifying time last year. Promising.”

His comments came in the context of KTM’s more aggressive approach to set-up changes in the second half of the season—an idea he had pushed for earlier. Acosta previously asked the Austrian manufacturer to take more risks with the bike, and he referenced the progress that has followed, including strong results at Silverstone and Aragon.

Asked directly about what risks he has been taking with the bike recently, Acosta explained that the changes have not been typical for him, but have helped. “Well, at the end, for example, last GP I was racing with a really short bike, and now I'm racing with a really long bike.” He said he is “normally not a guy who changes the bike so much,” but concluded that the latest direction appears to be paying off: “But it looks like it's working.”

Acosta also addressed the FP1 crash itself, saying it came as a surprise and was linked to an electronics issue. “I was having some problems,” he explained. “I was not feeling so great with electronics. It surprised me a bit because it was a lap that I was not pushing.” He acknowledged that crashes have occurred in practice recently without carrying over into Sunday results. “Anyway, things happen. In the last two races, I was crashing in FP1 and was not affecting races on Sundays. Let's hope that this becomes the same.”

On the tyre front, Acosta said most of his work on Friday afternoon was done on the soft rear tyre, and he believes it could be a viable option for the race. “Yeah, let's see,” he replied when asked about using the soft. He also confirmed that he will evaluate the medium on Saturday morning. “I have to try tomorrow the medium. It was not a bad choice, to be honest, but I was quite surprised how fast the people on medium were.”

To illustrate how competitive the medium appeared, Acosta cited specific times and riders. He said: “Bezzecchi was in 30.9, Alex Marquez, [Diogo] Moreira also.” With that in mind, he suggested the team will continue comparing options. “There were many guys quite fast at the beginning for this. Tomorrow I think we should try it, but soft looks like it's not a bad choice.”

Overall, Acosta’s Friday at Misano combined a setback—an FP1 electronics-related crash—with encouraging pace, strong tyre and feel feedback, and a clear sense that KTM’s willingness to take bigger set-up risks is translating into measurable performance.