A world came crashing down for KTM: Pedro Acosta threw away the sprint victory

Pedro Acosta took the lead at Turn 3 and, over the first eleven laps, pulled away from his pursuers Jorge Martin (Aprilia) and Marc Marquez (Ducati) by as much as 2.8 seconds at one stage. When KTM’s star rider entered the chicane too fast on lap 12 and slid out, it was a world come crashing down for the Mattighofen management – despite his outstanding pace, victory at his home race was not to be. One consolation remains: there’s another chance on Sunday; perhaps Acosta might even secure his first Grand Prix victory in the premier class.

“My pace was very good; I looked at the dashboard to see how many laps I had left and how the fuel was holding up, then I threw it all away because I missed the braking point,” said Acosta, summing up his fateful lap. “Three laps to go, 3 seconds ahead – normally I’d ease off a bit there so as not to take any risks. I lost my focus a bit – if I’m in the same situation on Sunday, I won’t let up.”

Willkommen zum Rennwochenende in Österreich

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Fans

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Musikanten

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Pit Lane

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Marc Márquez

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Enea Bastianini

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Fabio Quartararo

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Fabio di Giannantonio

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Der Start des Rennens

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Marc Márquez & Jorge Martin

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Francesco Bagnaia

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Toprak Razgatlioglu

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Enea Bastianini

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Ai Ogura

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Marc Márquez

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Pol Espargaró

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Jack Miller

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Luca Marini

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Marc Márquez

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Johann Zarco

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Raúl Fernández

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Pedro Acosta

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Alex Márquez

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Diogo Moreira

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Pedro Acosta

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Jorge Martin

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Qualifying - Marc Márquez, Jorge Martin & Pedro Acosta

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Sieger Jorge Martin & Marco Bezzecchi

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Willkommen zum Rennwochenende in Österreich

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Even two hours later, the 22-year-old saw no chance of preventing the crash. “I was going so fast that I wouldn’t even have been able to cut the corner,” said Pedro. “I messed it up. I was sooo fast at the start. My overtaking manoeuvre on Marc was risky, but it was the sort of move that wins you a championship.”

I’ve got nothing left to lose.

Pedro Acosta

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According to Acosta, there was no point in finishing the race after the slip-up: “I was out of the points, I was slow and would have had to warm the tyres up again. There was no need to take a risk.” The Spaniard emphasised that this result would not affect his approach on Sunday. “I’ve got nothing left to lose. Let’s see where I stand. In Austria, the track normally changes quite a lot between the sprint and the full race. Fuel consumption will play a major role.”

On Thursday, World Champion Marc Márquez had emphasised that Acosta was still in the title race; after all, he was 65 points behind and Márquez himself had made up 102 points. On Saturday at Spielberg, the exceptional rider’s deficit widened to 77 points – now behind the new-old championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia), who inherited Acosta’s sprint victory.