Pedro Acosta makes emotional admission over role in Marquez horror crash
Marquez's crash terrified everyone - Acosta included (Credit: Red Bull Content Pool)
18:15, 29 Sep
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Connor Andrews is Formula 1 and MotoGP writer for GPblog and various outlets. Having worked in motorsport for 15 years for leading companies, he has interviewed the sports biggest names and attended multiple Grands Prix.
Pedro Acosta has reflected on the most terrifying moment of his career so far.
During the Catalunya Grand Prix on May 17, the Spaniard was leading in front of his home fans until disaster struck.
On lap 12 his KTM suddenly slowed dramatically on the back straight and Acosta raised his arm to signal a mechanical fault.
Yet, in a split second, the man behind him, Alex Marquez, clipped his bike and was sent barrel-rolling along the grass with his Gresini spit into two parts.
The world of motorcycling froze for the next minutes until Marquez was seen giving a thumbs up, only to be later diagnosed with a broken neck.
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Thankfully, Marquez is back healthy and racing, but the incident didn’t just leave its mark on him, but on Acosta too.
The race was restarted after being red flagged, and Acosta was able to continue on a second bike, something that he’s admitted he didn’t want to do.
Acosta: MotoGP forces you to ‘stop being a kid’
Speaking to MARCA, the Austrian Grand Prix winner said: “The problem is that MotoGP has become a bubble where the rider is the hero of the story, and you have to be the hero 24 hours a day.
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“You go out twice. It’s a world that forces you to mature without thinking these things through.
“You go a lot by inertia, but thinking about it rationally, I think it was the day I least wanted to get on a bike. It’s a world that forces you to stop being a kid.”
Another crash occurred at the restart, and at the third time of asking, things went safely, and Acosta led up until the final two laps when his bike began slowing and he then crashed.
That was the closest the 22-year-old had come to winning a MotoGP race, up until Austria last time out, where he finally took that long awaited victory.
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Acosta names Marquez as MotoGP title favourite
Talking about his current form and title chances, he added: “I’m in my best form since we arrived in MotoGP; we’re closer than ever to the goals we set at the beginning of the year.
“We’ve had a lot of technical problems. We’re coming a long way considering how bad things looked a few months ago.
“You never imagine winning, but I did imagine being in the fight for it, but it’s very difficult without winning races.
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“It seems that the two people who have suffered the most on the grid are going to battle it out.
“Marc [Marquez], on paper, is the one who should win this World Championship. He is the current champion, the one with the most experience, the one who has lived through the most situations, the one who has beaten more idols than any of us have had.”
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