Pedro Acosta says his strong British MotoGP result came after a tough talk with KTM
Pedro Acosta says his top five finish at the MotoGP British Grand Prix came after he asked “some uncomfortable questions” of KTM during the summer break.
The 22-year-old has endured a frustrating season so far on the factory KTM, as his wait for a race win continues, while his podium tally stands at just three in 12 rounds.
KTM has also been plagued by a lack of form relative to Ducati and Aprilia, as well as a myriad of technical issues since the Catalan Grand Prix.
Finishing fifth on Sunday at Silverstone, Pedro Acosta says this came after a frank discussion with KTM during the summer break.
“Surprised, to be honest,” he told the media, including Crash, about his Silverstone result.
“I don’t think anyone was expecting a KTM around.
“For this, quite happy to make the step during the weekend.
“I was quite honest with the team during the summer break, putting some uncomfortable questions on the table.
“And, honestly, we are not that far from the top three in the championship. For that, I said, ‘Boys, if we just try to go there’.
“We need two things: first of all is to improve during the weekends, because normally we are quite stable during the weekends; we don’t improve a lot.
“And then not have any mechanical failures.
“I’m happy that they accepted it and took it in the best way, not like a criticism, more like a way to start the second half of the season.
“Looks like we were improving in a difficult track for me, in a race where I struggled at last year.
“We finished with a top five. It’s true that I used maybe a different strategy than [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, but it was the only chance I had, to burn a bit the tyre at the beginning and then survive.