– Pedro Acosta once again saved the honor of KTM and put the brand in the spotlight at MotorLand Aragon. The Spaniard secured a strong second place behind Marc Marquez, while his KTM teammates were far behind.
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Brad Binder qualified in 14th place and Enea Bastianini in 17th. In the sprint, Bastianini was the second-best KTM rider in 14th, while Acosta was fourth in the leading group.
In the Grand Prix, Bastianini once again showed one of his famous comebacks and worked his way up to eighth place. In Aragon, the Italian won in 2022 as a Gresini-Ducati rider.
This time, however, Bastianini was already struggling with understeer on his KTM during practice: “Yes, I have understeer because the rear wheel pushes forward. And when I try to let the bike slide, I simply lack grip.”
“I can’t let it slide when turning in. On a track like this, where the grip is especially low on the front wheel, it is very, very difficult to ride like that,” was his explanation for the problems right after the practice day.
The first lap in the sprint was extremely turbulent in the midfield. Bastianini was also involved and clashed with Franco Morbidelli, causing both to lose several positions.
“The start wasn’t that bad. But when I tried to overtake Franco, he moved over to me, and then there was that contact. The first lap was a bit strange.”
“But when you ride further back, the likelihood of getting caught in such chaos is very high.” The start phase in the Grand Prix went better, Bastianini was able to gain two positions and was 15th after the first lap.
“Lap by lap, I had more confidence to push, and the feeling came back more and more. I wasn’t as fast as the riders at the front, but fast enough to make some overtakes.”
He overtook, among others, Joan Mir and Jack Miller and engaged in a close duel with rookie Diogo Moreira in the last quarter of the race. In the last lap, Bastianini managed to overtake the Honda rider.
“Yes, Diogo is very difficult to overtake. He is also a new rival, and I haven’t fought against him often so far. But fighting against him is very, very tough. He brakes very late.”
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“Only at the turn-in was I in a better position, around turn 7 or turn 3. I also overtook him at turn 14. I saw my potential there and overtook him at that point.”
Binder from 20th to the Top 10
Directly behind Moreira, Binder finished tenth. In the sprint, the South African was off track several times and therefore only finished 15th. The Grand Prix went much better, although it started difficult.
“I made life difficult for 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 turn-in for turn 12.”
“After that, I was pushed wide in the last corner. In the next lap, I saw P20 and knew that a big task lay ahead of me. I still made it to tenth place, so I can’t complain too much.”
“It was a solid comeback, but I still have work to do. These are learning processes. I feel that we are making progress. If we find a bit more speed, we can make a jump closer to the front.”
Pol Espargaro assesses the gap
Pol Espargaro represented Maverick Vinales in the Tech3 team as he did in Silverstone. The test rider finished 17th in the sprint and 16th in the Grand Prix. Thus, he scored no championship points.
When comparing Acosta with the other KTM riders, Espargaro puts it 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 finished 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.”
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Aprilia rider Jorge Martin, whom Espargaro compares to Binder and Bastianini, finished fifth in Aragon. “That’s not so bad. It means the bike wasn’t so bad here,” Espargaro thinks.
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