Pedro Acosta finished seventh in the Japanese MotoGP despite starting from the front row after qualifying third on Saturday. Sunday brought a very different result for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider, who encountered unusual behaviour from the motorcycle and described the race as a difficult one.

Acosta lost ground to Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Márquez early in the race. He recovered Márquez’s position when the latter served a double long-lap penalty, but had already fallen behind Enea Bastianini and was then battling the Trackhouse Aprilia riders for fifth. He attempted to attack Raúl Fernández for that position, only for Ai Ogura to pass him late in the race and leave him seventh at the finish.

A mismatch between set-up and tyres

Acosta said he could not point to one specific fault with the KTM. In his assessment, the set-up had not worked properly with the tyres, leaving him short of grip both under braking and when accelerating. The result was difficulty stopping the motorcycle and then finding enough traction to drive out of the corners.

The feeling was unusual because, as Acosta explained, the motorcycle still seemed normal in the way it operated through corner entry and exit. He then experienced another drop in performance towards the end of the race, something he said he had never felt before. Acosta also rejected the idea that the difference between Saturday and Sunday was simply the result of switching to the hard tyre. Enea Bastianini’s fourth place on the other KTM gives the team a useful comparison, while Acosta said the collected data would help establish what went wrong. Despite the setback, he considered seventh a manageable result and turned his attention to Mandalika.