What a way to banish the demons. After a painful Tissot Sprint blunder on Saturday, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) delivered an absolute masterclass on Sunday to claim his maiden MotoGP victory. And what a stage for it: right at KTM and Red Bull's home venue, delivering a brilliant farewell gift before a new chapter awaits in 2027.
After fifteen previous podium finishes without tasting the top step, the young star carved his way to the front. The race started like an Aprilia dreamland with Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi, and Ai Ogura (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team) locking out the top three positions. Meanwhile, Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) lost three positions off the line, allowing Acosta to pounce into fourth.
Acosta wastefully wasted no time charging forward. On Lap 4, at Turn 2b—the exact scene of his Saturday Sprint error—he slipped past Bezzecchi for second. By Lap 9, the #37 was leading the field, outdriving Martin on the exit of Turn 1 down into Turn 2a. Behind them, Marc Marquez hit major trouble, running sideways and wide into Turn 1 and slipping down the order after being picked off by Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP).
As the laps ticked down, the pressure at the front intensified. Acosta managed his gap brilliantly, but the Aprilias were relentless. On the final lap, just 0.192s separated second-place finisher Martin from his Aprilia Racing teammate Bezzecchi, who rounded out the podium. Acosta brought his machine home with a 1.2s advantage, finally becoming a Sunday winner in MotoGP.
It was a massive day for Aprilia's championship ambitions as Martin extended his lead in the title race to 12 points, while Bezzecchi sits 42 points off the top heading to Japan. Behind the podium fight, Ai Ogura put in a stellar homecoming-bound ride to finish 0.9s away from the rostrum in P4.
Marc Marquez salvaged a P5 finish, 7.3s back from the winner, losing the championship lead as he heads to the venue where he clinched the 2025 title a year ago. Binder backed up his teammate's victory with a season-best P6 for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, followed by Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in P7.
Rounding out the points scorers, Aldeguer took P8 after a post-race three-second penalty for causing contact, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) grabbed P9, and Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) finished 10th. Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3), Raul Fernandez (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team), Joan Mir’s stand-in Takaaki Nakagami (Honda HRC Castrol), Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol), and Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) also collected points.
