Acosta wins intense #AmericasGP battle, 12th for Arenas

The Grand Prix of the Americas took place on Sunday amidst high temperatures and intense action over the 16-laps race at COTA, with Pedro Acosta winning the race after a great fight on the final lap. Albert Arenas earned further points for his tally, with twelfth place.

Acosta once again began the race from the front row of the grid, an opportunity that he took advantage of to make a good start and went on to lead after the first few laps. After a small mistake, he dropped to fourth place, although the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider managed to recover and move up to second and chase the leader. Acosta had an intense fight for the top spot, claiming it with 3 laps to go after a mistake by his rival. The last lap provided an exciting tussle for the victory, in which Acosta won out to earn his second win of the season and his fifth in Moto2. He is second in the overall standings with 54 points.

Arenas was thirteenth on the grid, and maintained his position and found a steady race pace on the opening laps. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider then upped the tempo and gained places to move up to tenth. The high temperatures of the Circuit of the Americas made it necessary to manage tyres well in order to be as competitive as possible from start to finish. The Spanish rider fought with the group to remain in the Top 10, although on the last few laps he dropped to twelfth. With 19 points to his name, Arenas is tenth in the standings.

The next round will be the Spanish Grand Prix, which will take place from April 27-30th, at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto.

PEDRO ACOSTA

Winning like we did today, being strong throughout the race, is a very good way to get the win. This circuit is very demanding and we knew it was going to be a tough race, and I knew that I had to take risks at the end because if we made a mistake at the beginning it would hinder us. I had to try and it turned out well. We have had a good pace and we are leaving COTA very happy. Now it’s time to focus on the next race in Jerez.

ALBERT ARENAS

The race didn’t end up as I wanted. We had a good pace from the start, but I couldn’t keep it up until the end. We have taken a step forward in terms of speed but it has not been enough to catch up with the leading group. I think that if we had started a little higher up the order, we could have been closer. I’ll take away the positives from this weekend, I know we’re still making progress and at Jerez we’ll start things off in the best possible way. The team did a great job and I want to apologise for not being able to finish as we would have liked. Congratulations also to Pedro and the team for the victory. The next race is at home, so we will give our best.