Pedro Acosta was one of the main MotoGP riders to watch once more as the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 star rookie attacked the kinks and curves of the rapid TT Circuit Assen layout to gather more elite level experience for the eighth round of 2024 and the resumption of racing duties. Pedro pushed to 10th both in Quali and the Sprint with the GASGAS RC16 while teammate Augusto Fernandez rode to 15th.
There are few better and most significant tracks to bring MotoGP back to full throttle after a small pause in the current GP campaign. The TT Circuit Assen, one of the original venues in the inaugural FIM World Championship in 1949, gave MotoGP a timely reminder of speed, flow and narrow margins and limits for round eight of twenty.
In MotoGP’s 75th anniversary, Assen was a particularly nostalgic reminder of the road ‘roots’ of motorcycle racing and the windy course (that was also ‘windy’ for the strong breeze on Friday) didn’t stop the field from dipping underneath lap record times from Friday practice. The 18-turn sequence of the layout was the next challenge for Pedro Acosta who missed out on Q2 entry on Friday afternoon after some bad luck with yellow flags. The 20-year-old lunged into Q1 and was repeatedly in contention for the cut. He eventually snagged P2 and went into Q2 where he set the 10th best lap, less than a second from Pole. Augusto Fernandez qualified in 22nd spot just a few tenths from the fastest race lap of 2023.
The Saturday Sprint raged around Assen for 13 laps. Acosta was immediately busy in the cut-and-thrust and reached a best slot of 10th. Fernandez persisted with his pace and application to the job at hand to record a top fifteen result. MotoGP will spin around the flat trajectory for 26 laps on Sunday.
Pedro Acosta, 10th in qualifying, 10th in the Sprint: “A good step overall today but the race was quite tough due to a couple of problems we did not expect…but racing can be like this sometimes. We have a lot of information for tomorrow and, overall, not too bad.”
Augusto Fernandez, 22nd in qualifying, 15th in the Sprint: “A difficult Saturday but in the Sprint we saw some light again. The qualifying was really tough for my feeling but also the gap to the others but the Sprint was a bit better. We’ll take that as a base for tomorrow. We are not starting in the best place but we’ll push for everything we can get.”
Nicolas Goyon, GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager: “Pedro had a difficult day on Friday and struggled to get comfortable but we made some changes and it was a bit better for Saturday. Q1 was strong but the small crash at the end meant it was then difficult for him in Q2! Nevertheless, he started inside the top ten and finished that way. It was a shame that he missed the points because he had a good record all season. Anyway, he is feeling stronger on the bike all the time so we are confident for tomorrow. Augusto is exploring different settings directions and he was happy with the feeling from the Sprint. Let’s see if we can get a bit more from the main race on Sunday.”
<
Discussion about this post