Pedro Acosta Finishes Second Behind Marc Marquez in Aragon — His KTM Teammates, However, Struggle Far Behind — Pol Espargaro Puts the Performance into Perspective
Pedro Acosta once again saved KTM’s honor and put the brand in the spotlight at MotorLand Aragon. The Spaniard secured a strong second-place finish behind Marc Marquez, while his KTM teammates trailed far behind.
Brad Binder qualified for 14th on the grid and Enea Bastianini for 17th. In the Sprint race, Bastianini was the second-best KTM rider in 14th place, while Acosta was among the leaders in fourth.
In the Grand Prix, Bastianini once again staged one of his famous comebacks and worked his way up to eighth place. The Italian won at Aragon in 2022 as a Gresini-Ducati rider.
This time, however, Bastianini struggled with understeer on his KTM as early as practice: “Yes, I have understeer because the rear wheel pushes forward. And when I try to let the bike slide, I just don’t have enough grip.”
“I can’t let it slide when turning in. On a track like this, where grip is a bit low—especially on the front wheel—it’s very, very difficult to ride like that,” he explained after the practice session.
In the Sprint, the first lap was extremely turbulent in the midfield. Bastianini was also caught up in it and collided with Franco Morbidelli, causing both of them to lose a few positions.
“The start wasn’t too bad. But when I tried to pass Franco, he cut across in front of me, and that’s when the contact happened. The first lap was a bit strange.”
“But when you’re riding further back, there’s a very high chance of getting caught up in that kind of chaos.” In the Grand Prix, the start went better; Bastianini was able to make up two positions and was in 15th place after the first lap.
“Lap by lap, I gained more confidence to push, and the feeling kept coming back. I wasn’t as fast as the riders at the front, but I was fast enough to pull off a few passes.“
Among others, he passed Joan Mir and Jack Miller and engaged in a close battle with rookie Diogo Moreira in the final quarter of the race. On the last lap, Bastianini managed to pass the Honda rider.
”Yes, Diogo is very difficult to pass. He’s also a new rival, and I haven’t battled him very often so far. But battling him is very, very tough. He brakes very late.“
”I was only in a better position going into the corners, like in Turn 7 or Turn 3. I also passed him in Turn 14. I saw my potential there and passed him at that spot.”
Binder Still in the Top 10 After Starting 20th
Right behind Moreira, Binder crossed the finish line in tenth place. In the sprint, the South African went off the track several times and therefore finished only 15th. The Grand Prix went much better, though, even though it started off difficult.
“I made things hard on myself,” says Binder. “When braking for Turn 11, my rear tire didn’t have the right pressure yet, so I completely lost the rear wheel and missed the entry to Turn 12.”
“After that, I was pushed wide in the final turn. On the next lap, I saw I was in P20 and knew I had a big challenge ahead of me. I still managed to finish in tenth place, so I can’t complain too much.”
“It was a solid comeback, but I still have work to do. It’s a learning process. I feel like we’re making progress. If we can find a little more speed, we can make a leap closer to the top.”
Pol Espargaro puts his deficit into perspective
Pol Espargaro stood in for Maverick Viñales on the Tech3 team, just as he did at Silverstone. The test rider finished 17th in the Sprint and 16th in the Grand Prix. He therefore did not score any World Championship points.
When comparing Acosta to the rest of the KTM riders, Espargaro puts things into perspective: “If we look at Brad and Enea, for example, their race wasn’t bad.”
“They were 25 seconds behind at the end, while Martin crossed the finish line 12 seconds behind. So they only lost about ten seconds to Martin, even though they started from the very back, almost at the end of the field.”
Aprilia rider Jorge Martin, whom Espargaro compares to Binder and Bastianini, finished fifth at Aragon. “That’s not so bad. It means the bike wasn’t that bad here,” says Espargaro.