Pedro Acosta suffered another crash during the MotoGP warm-up session at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday morning, following a similar incident in Saturday's Sprint. The KTM rider lost control of his RC16 at Turn 9 and bounced through the gravel, but fortunately escaped injury. Despite the crash, he finished the session third, behind Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi and Ducati's Marc Marquez.
The warm-up crash occurred while Acosta was testing the soft front tyre, a compound that may have contributed to the loss of grip. "Well, normally when I f**k up in the warm-ups, I perform quite well in races!" Acosta quipped during the riders' parade. He added that the bike felt perfect yesterday, and today wasn't too bad with the soft front. "Let's see what pace these guys put on track, and then if we can follow."
Acosta was reluctant to think about winning, despite starting from pole? "I prefer not to think about whether I can win, because like I said yesterday, I made maybe the most unusual mistake by myself. For this, let's try not to make it again," he said. The Sprint mistake cost him a certain victory, and now he must focus on bouncing back in the 28-lap main race.
His KTM teammate Brad Binder also had a tough warm-up. He suffered a highside at Turn 4 and failed to set a lap time. "I turned in, no gas... I think it was a cold tyre," Binder said. This incident adds to KTM's troubles at their home race, though they still have a chance for a strong result.
Meanwhile, Marc Marquez, who lost the championship lead to Jorge Martin after finishing second in the Sprint, said he would be happy with another runner-up finish. "If I can repeat the same result, I will be super happy, but it will be more difficult because it will be a very long race. The bike character is changing a lot from the beginning to the end with the tyre wear, so we need to understand well what we can do," he explained. The defending Austrian winner added, "Last year was easier! This year will be more difficult to win, but we'll try to take the maximum points possible."
Jorge Martin, who finished fourth in warm-up, sounded more confident. "I feel really good. I think today I have another good opportunity," said the Spaniard. He fought back from eighth after an opening-lap tangle with Marquez to win the Sprint. "For sure, the opponents are strong, but I feel like one of the top contenders for today. Let's try to do a great start, not take any risk at the beginning, and then it will be a really long race."
Martin's Aprilia teammate Marco Bezzecchi was fastest in warm-up for the first time this weekend. However, he remained humble. "As you saw during the weekend, Pedro, Jorge and Marc, they've been super quick, so I'm in fourth place, I'll try my best to stay close to them and, hopefully, I will have the pace to attack," said the Italian.
With two crashes for Acosta, can he bounce back and finally claim his maiden MotoGP victory? The main race will be the ultimate test.
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