Raul Fernandez has identified one area where he lost out compared to Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta in the Thailand MotoGP race.

Fifth-year MotoGP rider Fernandez started the Thai Grand Prix well, moving up to second, past Marc Marquez, on the first lap, but then faded towards the end and dropped to third behind Pedro Acosta.

Fernandez said that afterwards his weakness against Acosta and race winner Marco Bezzecchi ahead was about tyre life, even though he’d been trying to conserve the tyre from early in the race.

“Today for me was a really nice race,” Fernandez told the post-race press conference after the Thai Grand Prix.

“I tried all I had. A small deja vu from Valencia when I was second and Marco [Bezzecchi] was first. I tried to close the gap with Marco, but also I tried to save well the tyre because yesterday we saw that we had a quite high consumption of the rear tyre, especially, on the straight. 

“I tried until the end. The thing is that for some reason both of them [Bezzecchi and Acosta] managed better the rear tyre than me; in the last three, four laps I had a lot of spin on the straight.”

Fernandez’s tyre life comments came as Pedro Acosta noted that he feels KTM has improved its tyre life compared to last season.

The satellite Aprilia rider added that he also feels he is a better rider now than last year because his mentality has improved.

“I feel good with the bike, I think we started well the season,” he said. 

“Now I think I am a better rider because in the difficult moments I feel very calm in the box and it’s true that everybody worked better. 

“We tried, we didn’t get this second place because I think Marco today was in another level, but Pedro [Acosta] also saved better than us. We have to learn for the future.”

Although he was often on the podium in the final portion of last season and has started this year with two podiums at the opening round, which he leaves third in the standings and only nine points off the championship lead, Fernandez is keen to keep his ambitions for the season relatively modest.

“We don’t really think that we are a title contender,” the Trackhouse rider said.

“So, it means that our goals have to be on top-eight during all the year: in the difficult races we have to be there. If we have the possibility [of more], of course I will try. 

“I think Davide [Brivio] made a super-good crew in the team because if you see two years ago the team, it was quite difficult to see the people happy, and now everybody is happy, everybody works in the same way. 

“We know that still Ducati has a great rider, Marco and Pedro also are great riders, and we are arriving at our best level. Still I don’t have everything under control with this bike, but we are on our way to get what I want on the bike.”