– Pedro Acosta was also the fastest KTM rider at the German Grand Prix. At the Sachsenring, the Spaniard finished eighth in the sprint. The Grand Prix went much better for him with fourth place.
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Just under two weeks earlier, Acosta underwent surgery on his right wrist due to carpal tunnel syndrome. In Assen, he had to abandon the Grand Prix because of a numb right hand.
“Super happy about the hand,” Acosta said at the Sachsenring already after the sprint. “It’s true that at one point I got slight pain. But that’s nothing that stops my results at the moment.”
“I’m happy, I feel my fingers, I feel my hand, everything is fine.” In the sprint, the hard front tire was somewhat critical for Acosta, but he managed it.
In the Grand Prix, he was in eighth place after the first lap. Then he was able to overtake Jorge Martin’s Aprilia. When the two Ducati riders Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez crashed out, Acosta moved up to fourth place.
At first, he was still able to keep up with Ai Ogura, but as the distance progressed, he had to let go. Thus, Acosta finished fourth and spoke of a “surprising” result.
“We can say it was a surprise, a Sunday surprise, you know. I think no one expected this performance. We knew that the medium rear tire was less critical for managing the front tire.”
“The performance drop came around lap 17. That’s exactly when I started to lose contact with Ogura. But we have to be happy. I think I managed the tires pretty well.”
“We pushed at the moment we had to push. We were competitive, quite competitive at the start of the race, to finish before the summer break in this good way.”
Bastianini not satisfied despite comeback
The other KTM riders had more trouble. Enea Bastianini, who finished 14th in the sprint, noted afterwards that “nothing works” and the competition made bigger progress from Friday to Saturday.
“Only Pedro improved the lap time a bit compared to Friday, but me, Brad, and also Maverick, no. That was strange, but well, we have a lot of understeer, and that’s the problem.”
“I rode the first three, four laps and honestly don’t know why I didn’t crash. My main problem at the moment is that I don’t know what’s happening on every track. That’s the reality.”
“When I was at Ducati, I thought every time, okay, now we’re there and can fight for the top 5. But at the moment, here, no. I can’t think about it. It’s always a surprise.”
In the Grand Prix, Bastianini finished the first lap in 15th, but was then overtaken by rookie Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda). Nevertheless, the Italian gained several positions during the race and finished ninth.
But it was not easy, as he describes: “To be honest, the problem for me in the race was the first ten laps. When we have a lot of slipstream, the bike shakes a lot. But we also have a lot of understeer.”
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“That was the problem on this track,” said Bastianini. “I’m not really happy with the weekend because it was very, very complicated. After a positive trend, a positive Assen race, there isn’t much positive here.”
Binder’s tires wasted despite “Sunday ride”
Brad Binder also experienced another difficult weekend. In the sprint, the South African finished twelfth. In the Grand Prix, he also focused on tire management, but then something unexpected happened.
“I felt that I was very gentle with my rear tire. I felt I was good to it. There were two laps to go, then it exploded.”
“At first, I thought I was running out of fuel. Then I thought maybe the tire went flat. Then I realized it was just done. I was riding like on a Sunday ride and still wasted the rear tire.”
That he didn’t attack at all and the tire was still gone at the end surprises Binder: “Look, I know from all these years that I’m hard on the rear tire. I always had the highest wear on the rear tire.”
“Or if not the highest, then close to it. And yes, when Bastianini passed, I could see he still had a lot more rubber left.” Nevertheless, Binder managed to finish tenth.
Vinales can hardly ride the KTM
Maverick Vinales experienced a very difficult Sachsenring weekend. In the sprint, he finished almost ten seconds behind the second last (Cal Crutchlow). Also in the Grand Prix, Vinales was at the back of the field and finally gave up in the box.
“Basically, I feel that I have very little grip on the front wheel, especially when I ride with a new tire,” Vinales describes his problems. “The feeling is just not there.”
“So I can’t turn in and go around the outside. The feedback I get is that the front wheel can fold in at any time. It’s really bad to ride like that because I can’t carry corner speed.”
“My feeling is that when the track gains grip, the bike’s behavior gets worse. That’s my feeling. For example, in the sprint, I had a lot of shaking and could hardly hold on to the bike.”
In the Grand Prix, Vinales’ best race lap was only one second slower than the fastest race lap by winner Marc Marquez, but he couldn’t maintain a consistent pace.
“Yes, that’s it, because I can’t give the maximum,” sighs the Spaniard. “Sometimes, if I were in this position and gave the maximum, I would be calm, but the problem is that I can’t ride well.”
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“Also, I don’t understand the bike, how to ride it, because I think I’m not riding the right way. So I’m riding with a physical handicap, and on top of that, the bike is difficult to ride.”
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