Pedro Acosta: "We are too lost to fight Aprilia and…

Pedro Acosta says KTM is "too lost" to challenge Aprilia and Ducati, admitting the gap to rivals in Aragon Grand Prix practice was larger than expected.

The Spaniard ended Friday's running at MotorLand Aragon in eight place, over six tenths off the pacesetting Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi. But he was comfortably the fastest KTM rider on track, with Tech3's Enea Bastianini finishing another nine tenths behind in 17th.

Despite that huge performance differential to his stablemates, Acosta lamented the poor feeling his bike gave him, especially from the front end.

It is a problem which, combined with the strong level shown by both Ducati and Aprilia, leaves him facing a much more complicated race than he had imagined beforehand.

"We are too lost to fight with Aprilia and Ducati. It looked as though it was going to be a somewhat easier grand prix, but we had to see who woke up this weekend. Ducati has put five bikes inside the top 10, and Aprilia three," reflected Acosta.

"We have to fix the front-end problems, because it is our only card to play. Last year we ran with the hard front tyre, which gave me more support, but this year we don't have that compound. That makes it very difficult to compare and improve".

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images)

While Marc Marquez was considered favourite heading into the weekend, it was Bezzecchi who instead topped Friday practice for Aprilia, pipping the Marquez brothers in the closing stages of the session.

Acosta said he wished to understand whether the reigning champion was managing his energy after his countryman admitted he was left with no strength in his right arm before the Sunday race at Silverstone.

"I didn't expect Marco to be faster than Marc, but we have to see if he's keeping something in reserve," he said.

"But maybe Marc now is a question mark, just in the way that maybe he is managing the weekend and saving power. I was quite surprised seeing Marco P1."