Ready to fly! That’s a wrap for the European races, at least until the season finale in Valencia, as the Gran Premio dell’Emilia-Romagna was the final stop before the flyaways. Misano 2 did not go as well as planned on Sunday for the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 MotoGP™ squad, with Pedro Acosta crashing after 9 laps while he was in P4 following a rocket start, and Augusto Fernandez finished 18th.

Saturday’s Tissot Sprint performance was not Augusto Fernandez’ best with the number #37 bothered by constant vibrations on his RC16 during the 13 lap-shootout. Today was a new day with new hopes for the Spaniard, looking to score points to gain back the confidence. From his 18th position on the grid, the Spaniard took a good start, completely shifting himself on the left to benefit from the space left, and he moved up to 15th in one lap to find himself behind Fabio Di Giannantonio. Augusto started to set himself up into the race pace progressively. He was soon overtaken by Raul Fernandez who had made a fast comeback after an early mistake, now sitting in 16th after 5 laps, with Johann Zarco not far behind. The #5’s threat was growing more and more, until that became a reality when Zarco passed Fernandez on lap 8. He was now in 17th, Joan Mir not far behind. Augusto appeared to struggle on his RC16 with slower lap times, and a few laps later both Joan Mir and Luca Marini passed him, leaving the Spaniard in 18th with still 16 laps to go. Both Mir and Marini escaped while Takaaki Nakagami was close in his back wheel. Today, the Japanese did not wait for the final corner to overtake the #37, as he made a move on Augusto in the third sector of lap 14. A late crash from Francesco Bagnaia earned him one position while he was in 19th, so he finally finished the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in P18.

After his top 5 from the Tissot Sprint on Saturday, Pedro Acosta headed to Sunday’s race hungry for more after he admitted post race that P4 would have been doable yesterday. Let’s try it, then? Lights out at 13:00 local time, one last time in the European time zone. From 5th on the grid, the rookie took a solid start as he stuck Brad Binder in the first turns, with Marco Bezzecchi behind first, and then finally it was Marc Marquez who exited lap 1 behind Acosta, while the front 3 was quick to form itself. The following lap, Binder crashed ahead, and Pedro was now up in 4th, 0.9 seconds from Enea Bastianini after two laps. Acosta’s first laps were fire, with the #31 quickly reducing his gap to the #23, thanks to a 1'31.401 which was the fastest lap of lap 3. He was going all in, even giving us all a small scare in T13 with a save, but he managed to retain his 4th place, with a small gap made on Marc Marquez. Five laps had gone, and Jorge Martin had managed to take the gap with a small margin on Ducati Factory Duo Bastianini-Bagnaia, but unfortunately, soon after, Acosta went down in the final corner of lap 9, calling it an early end for him in Misano. Great shame for Acosta, who was on for a potential great result following an incredible race start.

Luckily, the wait until we are back at it again will be quite short, as the squad is now packing everything for the first round overseas, the Grand Prix of Indonesia, on September 27-28-29. Lombok, we are on our way!