Pedro Acosta has admitted that KTM isn’t on Ducati’s “level at the moment”, but he has argued that the MotoGP‘s current dominant marque isn’t “untouchable.”
The rookie sensation earned his first pole position in his MotoGP career at Motegi having managed a second-place finish at the previous round in Indonesia.
Acosta crashed out in both the Sprint and Grand Prix, though, which added no points to his championship total in what has been an impressive rookie campaign.
The GasGas rider is determined to come back stronger from the weekend’s results and is optimistic that he can stand to challenge Ducati in the remaining races.
“I’m not going to accept that the Ducati is better than the KTM, even if that leads to me crashing some more times,” he said via Autosport.
“We know that we’re not at Ducati’s level at the moment. But we saw that it’s not impossible to get there and that they’re not untouchable. We’ve seen that we can fight with them.
“There is little chance of beating the Ducati. There are times in life when you have to gamble.
“Even more so when Pecco [Bagnaia] is in front. He’s not going to risk it, but I am.”
Acosta finds his crashes “hard to accept”
Acosta expressed that he finds it “hard to accept” his Sprint and Sunday race shunts, but he took full accountability for his mistakes.
His crash during the Sprint race happened in the final few Laps while leading the race, crashing out at Turn 7.
Meanwhile, he had an early bath on Sunday as he crashed out at the final corner on the third lap.
“Well, I was just trying to prepare the way onto the main straight a little bit better because I was struggling a bit to be closer to Pecco to try an overtake,” he explained.
“But anyway, it was a mistake from my side.
“For this, it’s difficult to say something. It’s true that it was super, super close. Let’s try again in Australia.
“For me, the feeling was really similar to yesterday. It’s difficult to accept the crash. Let’s try again in Australia because we are getting closer.
Tech3 Team Manager Nicolas Goyon echoed Acosta’s sentiments, but also believes this experience will make the rookie “stronger”.
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