Pedro Acosta secured the fourth-fastest time during Friday practice at the Sepang International Circuit, yet the young Spanish sensation delivered a surprisingly harsh assessment of his machine's performance. Despite finishing just three tenths off the pace set by the championship leader, he admitted to struggling immensely aboard the KTM RC16.
The Austrian manufacturer enjoyed a remarkably strong start to the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. Alongside Acosta, Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales successfully broke into the top ten, guaranteeing themselves a direct passage into Q2. However, these positive results brought little satisfaction to the factory rider.
The core issue plaguing the Spaniard was a severe lack of front-end feedback, which severely hindered his braking capabilities throughout the afternoon session. While his lap times looked competitive on the timesheets, the actual sensation of riding the motorcycle left him deeply frustrated.
According to Motorsport.com, Acosta elaborated on his struggles during the post-practice media debrief. "It's true that we are not far from Marc, but I don't know why I have no feeling in the front of the bike. I was trying a lot to turn and to make the braking points properly. We just have to check because the lap time was not so bad, but the feeling was terrible," he stated.
Looking ahead to the upcoming sessions, he emphasized that his race pace is surprisingly better than anticipated when not over-pushing for a single flying lap. The priority for the team moving forward will be solving the front-end dilemma rather than chasing immediate single-lap glory.
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