18th and 1.2s from the top at last November’s Valencia MotoGP test was a solid debut performan🎃ce by star 🌄rookie Pedro Acosta.

But MotoGP’s most eagerly anticipated newcomer since Marc Marquez stepped up a gear at the Sepang 🎀Shakedown.

Acosta was fast over all three days, saving his best for last by finishing top of the time🌄sheets.

Sure, Acosta was competing against test riders and only sixꦉ full-time racers, from Yamaha and H♉onda, thanks to the new concessions.

But the test riders o🐼n the same KTM bike included 31-time MotoGP winner Dani Pedrosa, who fought for podiums as a wild-card last season, and ten-y☂ear premier-class veteran Pol Espargaro.

The race riders also included two former MotoGP champions in Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir, plus race winners ಞAlex Rins and Johann Zarco.

Acosta’s best tim🦩e of 1m 58.189s was under the official Sepang race lap record and just over half-a-second from the all-time pole record.

The final day 🐠wasn’t without incident for the Spanish teenager,𒆙 who suffered his first MotoGP fall at lunchtime, then a second spill while completing his first wet MotoGP laps in the final hour, after a thunderstorm had drenched the circuit.

But his performance, plus the pace of all the KTM riders o🍷n the lates🦄t RC16, certainly turned heads. The big question now is how Acosta (and KTM) will measure up against the full MotoGP field at the same track during the official test from February 6-8.

"We spent these three days mainly trying to work on my riding style, trying to understand the tyres in﷽ MotoGP, find a bike set up, and we have to be happy with this first test,” Acosta said.

“We did some good fast laps, but we most importantly had a good race pace on the dry. We even got a bit of time in the wet, which isꦑ always a bonus.

“I tried to follow🌸 Dani Pedrosa a bit today, and it was not that꧃ easy!

“In the Sepang Test, we will try to follow the lines of the other riders, because I was struggling a bit in Turns 5 and 6, and under✤stand everything a bit more.

“Very happy, now I am going to en💙joy two days of rest!"