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Acosta after a strong performance: “Now Marc should wear the number 1”

Red Bull-KTM ace Pedro Acosta lined up on the starting grid for the German Grand Prix with only modest expectations. He started from eighth on the grid – and Spain’s MotoGP hope crossed the line in fourth place.

MotoGP

12.07.2026 - 17:29

This article is an automatically generated English version. The original article was published in German.

KTM-Spitzenfahrer Pedro Acosta: Platz 4 auf dem Sachsenring
© Gerhard Schiel

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Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

KTM’s star rider Pedro Acosta had assessed his position as somewhere between 7th and 10th – not resigned to it, but realistic. “That’s as far as I can go naturally,” said the young Spaniard ahead of the eleventh Grand Prix of the season. And then, for a brief moment, it even looked as though he might secure a podium finish. Acosta enjoyed an extraordinary Grand Prix race with a positive outcome heading into the summer break.

After a good start, Acosta left Jorge Martin and Fabio Quartararo behind and clawed his way up to the Trackhouse Aprilia riders in the first half of the race. At times, a minor sensation was in the air. But in the final third of the race, MotoGP reality set in once more. Acosta ran into trouble; Ogura, who until then had been just metres ahead of the Spaniard, pulled away and stormed up to second place. Acosta had to let the Japanese rider pass without a fight. However, as elite riders such as Alex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio also crashed out, and Martin and Bagnaia were battling it out for fifth place far behind Acosta, the KTM rider was able to secure fourth place unchallenged.

“A brilliant result – it was a lovely Sunday surprise,” said Pedro, delighted after 30 laps on the Sachsenring circuit. “It was the right decision to try something different in the warm-up and then revert to the old settings. Besides, we’d already realised beforehand that the medium tyre was a better fit and made the front end of the bike less critical,” Acosta continued.

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Despite a satisfactory performance, the rider from Murcia remained unsparing in his assessment of the set-up’s durability: “The first 20 laps were pure joy, as I was able to move up the field and apply pressure, but towards the end it wasn’t fun anymore – it was more of a real struggle. I think it was lap 17 when it was all over and I could no longer keep up with Ogura.”

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Asked about the tight situation in the World Championship, where the top five were separated by fewer than 25 points or a Grand Prix win, Acosta said: “It’s a peculiar situation; it seems as though nobody fancies taking the lead. But I also think that, in the current situation, it’s Marc again who’s the one to beat. Right now, the number 1 should be stuck to his motorbike.”

Even though Acosta is no longer part of this elite group and has slipped to seventh place behind Raul Fernandez, he is not dissatisfied with the first part of the season: “Compared to 2025, I’ve made fewer mistakes myself. We were held back by a few technical issues; we lost a lot of points in several GP races as a result. But we’ve also learnt some important lessons.”

There are 22 more races to go – then the era with KTM will come to an end after eight years together and three titles. In 2027, Acosta will have to prove himself at Ducati Lenovo as a team-mate to Sachsenring winner Marc Marquez.

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