Pedro Acosta thinks he is “getting closer and closer” to achieving his first win in MotoGP after delivering a second-placed finish in Indonesia.
The rookie sensation finished only 1.4s behind race winner Jorge Martin and claimed his fourth podium in 2024.
An aggressive start to take second in the early stages paid off with Acosta showing his raw speed and competitiveness with the Ducati riders, bringing home a much-needed 20 points to add to his championship tally.
As a result, Acosta regains fifth place in the standings, with only Martin, Francesco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez ahead of the youngster.
“We need to be happy because we have got this consistency inside the top five, which against Ducati is not easy,” reflected Acosta.
“But we are getting closer and closer.”
The importance of bringing the bike home
Acosta had a difficult outing at the previous round in Misano, with the 20-year-old failing to finish at both Grand Prix outings.
The Spaniard admitted that he opted for a risk-averse approach to make amends for the points lost from the previous two Sunday races in Rimini.
“I said from Tuesday that this track was a little bit easier for us because we don’t have massive grip and normally the KTM is quite fast in these conditions.
“It’s true that it was not an easy weekend because we were struggling [on Saturday] with some problems that we were able to solve and use to help us for this and I don’t know, I’m super happy with just things, all the testing that is around with Dani [Pedrosa] and Pol [Espargaro], also the people that are working in the factory, so these awesome guys are assembling all these results.”
“In Misano we had good pace and I was competitive, but in both I crashed.
“I tried to catch him but I had a moment on lap 16 that allowed him to pull away again, so I say that maybe it is better to have second place than to have another crash.”
