Pedro Acosta (2nd): “I’ll give it my all on this bike right up until the very last day!”

Pedro Acosta came out on top against Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo) in Saturday’s MotoGP Sprint, winning by half a second. The KTM rider put in a strong performance and was therefore among the favourites for victory in Sunday’s Grand Prix as well. Acosta didn’t get off to an ideal start there and dropped back to fifth place early on. However, he managed to fight his way back up to third place on the very first lap.

Marc Márquez got off to the best start and overtook his brother Alex in the first corner. The nine-time champion then steadily extended his lead, whilst Acosta was stuck in third place behind AM73. The 22-year-old had the better pace. On lap 10, the moment finally arrived and Acosta was able to overtake Alex Marquez.

Pedro Acosta vor Ai Ogura und Marco Bezzecchi

Foto: Gold and Goose Photography

Acosta then set his sights on Marc – but the latter rode a commanding race and was simply uncatchable. MM93 crossed the finish line as the winner, more than four seconds ahead of Acosta.

Pedro Acosta was nevertheless satisfied with the double podium in Malaysia. “We gave it our best. Alex was very fast at the start. He was a bit quicker on the straights, which made it difficult for me to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre,” explained the Spaniard. “Another second place – I’m really happy for the lads at KTM. We’ve had a brilliant end to the season.”

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“I’m so happy. Last year was already a good weekend, but this time we’ve put the experience from last year and what we’ve learnt this season to good use,” Acosta continued. “The race went well, but I lost a bit of top speed on the straights. Behind Alex, I decided to ease off a bit and save the tyres. I pushed again in the middle of the race. The team worked so hard to sort out the problem I was having with the feel of the front tyre. It wasn’t much different in the race, but we just tried to get 100 per cent out of our package.”

In the first half of the race, Acosta made several attempts to get past Alex Márquez. How much of a risk did he have to take in the braking zones to get past his compatriot? “A lot! When you have to brake so late, the bloke in front of you becomes a problem,” Acosta chuckled. “I just tried to stay as close to him as possible and use his slipstream. But that didn’t help much because he was much faster on the straights. Anyway, we have to be happy.”

He couldn’t do much against Marc Marquez’s dominance this time. “I thought I could be much closer to Marc. Maybe not enough to beat him, because he was very strong today,” Acosta had to admit.

Acosta was once again the best KTM rider – he was the only one who could keep up with the strong Ducatis and Aprilia bikes. “I just want to be up front,” he smiled. “I’ll give it my all on this bike right up until the very last day. It looks like it’s paying off. I’m delighted for the team; we’re doing a good job.”