More Mugello memories for Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Pedro Acosta! The 2024 MotoGP rookie sensation rides his GASGAS RC16 to the top five for the Italian Grand Prix and round seven of the current season in front of busy spectator areas and in sunny conditions in Tuscany.
The red light disappeared and red GASGAS race machinery thundered into life as the Italian Grand Prix staged another scorching and strategic show at Mugello. Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez both had their personal goals for the seventh round of MotoGP and following the Saturday Sprint where Pedro was able to polish his third podium medal of the season.
Acosta started swiftly and moved into the top five but didn’t have the final tenths of a second per lap to close to the podium fight. The rookie conserved rubber and maintained his pace to bag points and take the maximum plunder from the day. He has moved up to 5th in the championship standings as a result. Augusto Fernandez’s race lasted for five laps before he had to pull into the pitlane with a technical issue.
After back-to-back events, MotoGP now has an official one-day test at Mugello on Monday and then enters a three-weekend hiatus before charging into another ‘double’. The action starts again with the Dutch Grand Prix at TT Circuit Assen in late June.
Pedro Acosta, 5th: “Well, a tough race because we were missing a bit from the beginning but this was also the maximum we could take today. It was important to take points after two crashes recently and also information for the test tomorrow, as well as more learning in warm conditions for the summer races to come. For all this we have to say we are happy….but we are not! We’ll keep on trying to work like this because it feels like we are getting closer.”
Augusto Fernandez, DNF: “A shame to finish the race so early but we broke the rear fender and these things can happen. We couldn’t try the things we wanted to in the race. My start was good but the end came too quick. We have the test to try again tomorrow. It’s a tough moment but we need to keep working and fighting. There are still a lot of races ahead.”
Nicolas Goyon, GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager: “Today feels a bit like mission accomplished for the team. Pedro gave his maximum, and we feel it was the best we could achieve. We have to be proud of our weekend: it was quite strong with a podium in the Sprint and top five on Sunday at a difficult racetrack and we’re also up to 5th in the championship now. On Augusto’s side he was really unlucky. We need to understand why he had this issue because we’ve never seen it before! The positive point was that he was happy with his pace up until then and it was the first time this weekend he felt some improvement. So, we need to continue in this way.”
<
Discussion about this post