KTM’s Pedro Acosta conceded that Ducati and Aprilia hold a clear advantage over the rest of the competition, describing their long-run pace in the Buriram MotoGP test as “scary”.

Pre-season testing for 2026 concluded in Thailand on Sunday, with Aprilia and Ducati riders locking out the top five spots in the classification. Acosta was the top competitor on a non-Italian bike, finishing 0.353s off the outright pace in sixth.

However, the gap to the front became most apparent over race simulations in the afternoon, with Acosta failing to dip below the 1m30s barrier over his 13-lap run. 

While the Spaniard was still satisfied with his performance on the factory RC16, he admitted that he was surprised by the scale of the deficit.

“Not bad, not bad,” he said, summing up his day. “I’m quite happy with the time attacks that I did this morning. I’m quite happy with the position because we were inside the top five [in the morning session], and normally it's our target, and I'm not far from the first. 

“Today in the afternoon, I was working, I made my race simulation, and I was quite okay. Sure, Aprilia and Ducati ones [long runs] look scary, but I was quite happy to be honest. We arrived at lap 24-25 with the tyres still alive. It was much different compared to last year. For this, I’m quite happy.”

With Ducati remaining the benchmark in MotoGP and Aprilia making tangible progress over the winter, KTM has been left as the distant third manufacturer in the pecking order.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

However, Acosta draws encouragement from the fact that the RC16 is no longer chewing its tyres like last season, improving his prospects for the full-distance races.

“It looks like Ducati and Aprilia have one step more than us, but also that we have to be realistic that this is not our best track in the championship,” he said. 

Regarding tyre wear, he added: “It looks like we are able to survive a bit more. It's true that Aprilia and Ducati look like they are quite faster. But l would be happy if we can be inside this top five for the first race of the year for this. It looks promising.”

Acosta completed his pre-season testing programme without suffering any crashes, marking a major improvement over previous years.

While the 21-year-old admitted he was taking it easy to keep his bike in a single piece for the race sim, he was still satisfied with his no-crash record.

“I’m super happy to be honest,” he added. “Maybe this was the limitation that I was having in the time attack. Knowing that I have the race simulation in the afternoon, I was not wanting to really push this extra and then lose time to prepare the simulation for this. 

“I'm quite happy, the bike feels more natural, no movements.”

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