Pedro Acosta fast but “feeling terrible” in Malaysian GP practice

Pedro Acosta admitted he felt “terrible” on the KTM RC16 in Malaysian Grand Prix practice despite clocking the fourth-fastest time of the day.

The Austrian manufacturer enjoyed a strong start to the Sepang weekend, with Acosta, Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales all finishing inside the top 10 to secure direct passage into Q2.

Factory rider Acosta was the best of the trio in fourth place, finishing just three tenths off the outright pace set by Ducati’s championship leader Marc Marquez.

MotoGPMotoGP Malaysian GP: Marc Marquez tops practice as Martin ends Friday early

However, the Spaniard took little satisfaction from the results, pointing to a lack of feedback from the bike that left him struggling under braking.

“It's true that we are not far from Marc, but I don't know why I have no feeling in the front of the bike,” he said. “I was trying a lot to turn and to make the braking points properly. We just have to check because the lap time was not so bad, but the feeling was terrible.”

He added: “We are not far. Especially in [terms of] pace, we are better than expected. When I have to not over-push for time attacks, the bike is working a bit better. But tomorrow will be a day to try to find a feeling and not a lot of lap times.”

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

While Acosta has usually been the only rider to run anywhere near the front this year, with only Bastianini cracking the top 10 on an occasional basis, he will have more representative data available in Sepang with Vinales finishing eighth in practice.

“I’m happy for KTM that Maverick and Enea made a really good step, especially Maverick,” Acosta said. “He was suffering since his injury, he was really fast even being alone. It's quite interesting to see his data this afternoon.

“But it's not about position; it's about feeling. You have to find something, especially for the braking points, because I'm losing too much.”

Acosta has suffered slow starts to some other race weekends this year, only to make a big step overnight and rediscover the missing feeling on the bike.

Asked if he could hope for a similar turnaround, the 22-year-old said: “I know that Malaysia is not an easy track for me, I need a bit of time to get in the pace normally, I was already faster than my lap time last year in qualifying.

”I am calm that I was not slow with the bad feeling. Now it's a matter of finding feeling and finding consistency during the laps.”

MotoGPMotoGP riders say Sepang tarmac completely “destroyed”: “It’s like a motocross track”

MotoGP"When I don't have pain, I gain," says Maverick Vinales after return to form in Malaysian MotoGP practice

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

- The Motorsport.com Team