Double retirement ends KTM optimism at MotoGP Italian GP

There was such a sea of optimism in the factory KTM camp on Friday evening with both Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder thinking big points were on offer come the Saturday sprint race for the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix.

Therefore the emotions within the orange garage can only be imagined as both riders went out on lap one and slid into retirement.

Acosta slid into the gravel trap at the last corner but wasn’t too hung up on his fast exit from the sprint or his choice of tyre.

“Short race for KTM,” said Acosta. “I started thinking the hard front was the correct choice, I’m happy with my decision, I was thinking if anything happened I would put it on tomorrow.

“For the first corner, I say ‘okay I brake much earlier’. I make the corner, but somehow then everyone pushed me to the front.

“I go slightly wide [going into the last corner] and say ‘ok’, I go out and then I come back and I try to prepare somehow for the straight. Suddenly I lost the front. It’s true I was quite wide but not forcing me to lose the front, but anyway a mistake.”

KTM looked to be the manufacturer most likely to threaten Ducati at Mugello and Acosta revealed where the Austrian bikes were losing out.

“In long corner accelerations let’s say,” he added. “But not like Turn 1, more like Turn 8, Turn 7, Turn 11, and Turn 12. Somehow, I will not say it is their torque or their engine or their traction, but somehow they are able to put more power on the ground.”

Acosta also explained the aspirations he had for the sprint as he believed that the KTMs would be able to catch Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati.

“I really thought today our potential was to fight with Pecco,” said Acosta. “The problem was Maverick [Vinales] was stuck behind Fabio [Quartararo] for many laps and in the laps afterward he was not able to catch Pecco.”

Binder was also buoyant with hope after Friday practice but his race lasted no further than the first corner.

“Short and sweet my race,” said Binder. “I got a really good launch and got a little nudge on the inside just enough to tuck the front and that was my race done.”

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

It should be remembered however that Binder didn’t progress into Q2 and explained what issues prevented him from extracting more from his RC16.

“I expected to be really good this morning and when I went to push I found some massive chatter,” explained Binder.

“Understeer and massive chatter on the front which I thought we found something to help us yesterday but it’s like we have a window and it’s either working on the money super good or you have some pretty big moments on the front.

“We need to try to make the window a little bit bigger.”