Pedro Acosta once again delivered interesting and entertaining statements after the race, this time at the French Grand Prix, where he finished fifth after being overtaken by Di Giannantonio just two corners from the end.
“That was the maximum I had. At best, I could have scraped fourth, which Di Giannantonio took away from me, because I thought he was closer and I went a bit too defensive, and it backfired. Clearly, we weren’t in the fight for the podium compared to the three Aprilias. They had a pace that was scary, especially Martín and Ogura coming from behind. We have to be realistic about where we are. Happy because it’s been one of my best weekends at Le Mans overall—normally I didn’t finish one of the two races, and I got fourth and fifth. Happy because we’re maintaining the consistency we didn’t have last year,” the KTM rider began.
On the battle with Pecco and the effort to follow his wheel until he crashed on lap 16: “Well… (smiles). With Pecco, I was taking the start a bit easy. I wasn’t sure that the hard front tire was the best choice, so I was being cautious. When Pecco passed me, he did two very fast laps, but that’s when I woke up. I was recovering ground well, and then Martín came—similar story: hold on for two or three laps, then they kept their pace and I fell back a bit. Then Ogura was a disaster—how he overtook me, how he got away, and how he threw himself into Turn 6. The speed he carried there was inhuman. But we have to be happy because it seems we’re getting 100% out of our package. That’s what we have, and we keep going.”
Regarding why he wasn’t sure about the hard front tire but still used it: “In the end, I’m always the one who uses different things from the winners, and I’ve gotten a bit tired of that. Last year here I used the medium rear wet when everyone used the soft. In Barcelona last year, I used the soft rear when everyone used the medium. And in Aragón and Mugello, I used a hard front that no one else was using, only me. And you get tired of being the guinea pig.”
On the final battle with Diggia: “I went a bit too defensive, made the mistake of thinking he was closer than he was. I’ll note that for next time. No one passes me while looking at me.”
We asked if that affected his morale, since the Italian did look at him while entering the straight, but later said it wasn’t to challenge him, just to check if he would retaliate. The Shark replied when AS asked: “We’ll see in the next race.”
A positive detail: his good start, from fourth to third: “Very good start, first laps were quite decent. A shame that we started to see tire degradation again from lap 10, with 17 still to go. But overall, given the circumstances, we had a good weekend—one of the best here, so I’m happy.”
Regarding Pecco’s crash while he was riding just behind: “It was a bit strange because it started…”
