'I f***ed it up' - Acosta explains his crash from Austria sprint lead
Pedro Acosta says he simply lost focus when he made the mistake that cost him a certain Austrian Grand Prix MotoGP sprint win.
The KTM rider had dominated practice, then moved from third to first on the opening lap as both Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez made errors.
Acosta was over two seconds clear of the recovering Martin with three laps to go when he then crashed at the chicane.
"I was riding in a really good mood, the pace was really good, I was just checking the laps that there was remaining in the dash to see how I was with the fuelling and I f***ed it up, that's it. I lost my braking point and that's it," he explained.
"Three laps to go, three seconds ahead, it also was the moment that I rolled off a bit to not take any risks and also was the moment that I lost focus a bit.
"Tomorrow, if I'm in the same place, sure, I will not roll off."
Acosta ran into the run-off area at the chicane when he made the mistake and then fell when his KTM touched the gravel there.
Asked if there had been any chance he could have saved the incident if he hadn't tried to make the corner at all, he replied "f**k, I was that fast that it was even going to be tough to cut the corner".
He added: "Also, my mistake was not that big for the amount of speed that I was carrying. It was a mess on my side. Thankfully tomorrow we have another chance."
Acosta remounted and continued in 13th initially before retiring a lap later.
"I was out of the points, I was slow, I had to warm up the tyres again. It was not necessary to take any risks," he explained when asked by The Race why he'd eventually pitted even though he still seemed competitive.
He wasn't sure if his domination of the race before the crash was a reflection of the KTM's pace or his main rivals focusing on each other, with Martin having to come back through from eighth after his first lap error.
"I was surprised that I was really fast at the beginning, that normally is where I struggle the most," said Acosta.
"And also they were having their own fight. I was just making my way."
He said his sprint error would make "zero" difference to how he approached Sunday's grand prix, when he'll again start third alongside Martin and Marquez.
"I have nothing to lose. And also it's [the grand prix] the moment that I'm showing more speed, with more constant good results."
