Acosta tops Sepang practice as KTM addresses tyre wear

Pedro Acosta topped Friday practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix despite two crashes and a wet-interrupted session, and said he has found greater consistency this season largely through mental adjustments even as KTM grapples with persistent tyre-wear problems. The 21-year-old Red Bull KTM factory rider set the fastest time of 1m57.559s in the second practice at Sepang after the afternoon session was delayed by 35 minutes because of an earlier oil spill and briefly interrupted by rain.

Acosta recovered from a crash at Turn 9 in the second practice and from an earlier fall in the opening session to post the quickest lap, edging Johann Zarco by 0.019 seconds. Jack Miller, Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo completed a mixed top five that featured four Japanese-built machines among the leaders. The day's top 10 secured direct passage to Saturday's Q2 session; notable names who will instead contest Q1 include Francesco Bagnaia, Fermin Aldeguer and Marco Bezzecchi.

Speaking after practice, Acosta credited mental changes for his recent run of form. "If you check the bike, we haven't changed that much," he said. "It's true that there we started to be more consistently inside the top five,...