Pedro Acosta says it is ‘crazy’ to think he was lapping only +1.2secs off the ultimate pace upon making his much anticipated MotoGP debut with the GasGas Factory Racing Tech 3 Racing team.

The newly-crowned Moto2 World Champion was the only fresh face to be getting his first trial on a full-fat MotoGP machine when he rode out in a one-day test at Valencia.

After assuring himself of two World Championship titles in only three seasons of Grand Prix racing, the 19-year old stands front and centre of many predictions that he will become a MotoGP ‘superpower’ in the coming years.

Despite the big step up in power, Acosta was in impressive form straight out of the box, ending the day just 1.2secs adrift of the fastest time. He says it is ‘crazy’ to think that only minor time gains could see him challenging for top ten results from the off.

“Super happy, from the first photo in the morning at 9am until the crash at 5pm, I was super happy. I could see how the bike is, the tyres, the fuel… it was difficult to manage but I’m super happy. 

“I didn’t have any expectations before this, all day it was close to 1 to 1.5secs, for me is good. Imagine if I go half a second faster, I go top ten, it’s crazy to think about.

“This bike was really fast, it’s true we don’t start with the new bikes so we can understand using a MotoGP bike, the transfer, the bike. 

“The bike starts to go full power since I go from the last corner to the end of the straights, I was freaking out! It was a good day.

Off-track, Acosta was also struck by how much interest there is in him following his promotion into the full KTM-backed team.

“I see how many people from there factory arrived in the box every time I ran. It gave me a lot to understand a MotoGP bike and how the team was working, every time I went on track I had 20 people around just listening to my comments. The bike was amazing, they have an amazing bike for next year.”