Pedro Acosta was left ruing a “stupid” battle with Fermin Aldeguer after finishing sixth in the Misano MotoGP Sprint, a far cry from his impressive second place at Aragon just weeks ago. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider felt the fight cost him valuable time.
Aldeguer had started third but was quickly demoted to fourth at Turn 4 on the opening lap by Fabio Di Giannantonio. Jorge Martin followed through, and then Acosta made his move on the Gresini rider at Turn 8. The scrap between the two Murcians continued to Turn 9, where they ran wide and allowed Alex Marquez to slip past. Aldeguer also lost out to Raul Fernandez and ultimately finished eighth.
Acosta never recovered from sixth after lap one, and afterwards admitted the battle was “stupid”, though he conceded it was fair. “Aldeguer and me, we were making stupid shit around,” Acosta said. “This cost us a lot of time, because I think without this battle, both should be more close to Diggia and Martin in that moment. But anyway, it's what it is, the battle was fair enough; for this, racing.”
The Spaniard explained that his struggles on Saturday – qualifying only seventh before the underwhelming Sprint – stemmed from a lack of stopping efficiency, an area he has typically excelled in. “I'm struggling a lot, stopping the bike,” he said. “Somehow, it's not normally my weakest point, but it looks like this weekend I'm struggling a lot and we are not finding a solution. This makes everything more difficult.”
He added: “When you only have some strong points and you lose it, it's making everything even worse. The team is working super hard to try to find everything out and try to find a solution. But at the moment, all the KTMs are having the same problem.”
With this result, Acosta loses further ground in the championship, while Aldeguer also failed to capitalise on his front-running start. The Misano Sprint served as a reminder that fierce battles can be a double-edged sword.
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