Pedro Acosta claims his first MotoGP win at the Red Bull Ring
Jorge Martín, Marc Márquez and Pedro Acosta made all the noise at the Austrian Grand Prix and also the front three in qualifying.
From the action-packed sprint session, which ended with an unfortunate crash for Acosta that took him out of the lead in Sprint, the battle continued into Sunday, ultimately with Acosta taking his first ever race win. Here’s everything that unfolded over the weekend.
Sprint Report
Martín took the Sprint win in Austria despite dropping to eighth place on Lap 1 after coming too close with Márquez, forcing Martín off track and costing him his lead.
Acosta took advantage of the incident and moved straight ahead, making it look like the KTM rider had the race under control. Meanwhile, Martín began climbing back through the order and set his sights on Acosta, who maintained a 2.5-second lead.
However, with just three laps remaining, Acosta crashed and dropped down the order. He initially rejoined the race but ultimately retired before the chequered flag.
Acosta’s retirement moved Marco Bezzecchi into third, giving Aprilia a double podium with Márquez between the two riders. Martín’s win also put him ahead of Márquez in the championship standings.
Race Report
On the opening lap, Bezzecchi moved up to second behind his teammate while Marquez dropped to fourth, and Ai Ogura pushed through the pack into third.
Bezzecchi pressured Martín for the lead while managing his risk, taking over the lead by the end of the lap before the two riders started trading places over the next few laps.
Quartararo was handed a position drop penalty for track limits on lap two while running in 10th place.
Marquez slipped further to fifth by lap 3 as Acosta joined the front group, with Bagnaia sitting right behind them with a gap of just 0.25 seconds.
Acosta built a strong pace, caught up to the Aprilias ahead and passed Bezzecchi for second by lap 4.
Bezzecchi gradually pulled away from the two ahead, opening up a 1.5s advantage over Acosta by the seventh lap. Behind them, Márquez continued to pressure Ogura, who refused to give up the position.
Brad Binder, the only other KTM inside the top 10, followed Márquez, with Fermín Aldeguer close behind. Bagnaia was another 1.2s back, making things relatively quiet further down the order. Up front, however, Acosta had just taken the lead.
Márquez managed to get past Ogura shortly after Acosta moved into first but went wide the following lap and dropped down to seventh, making Aldeguer the leading Ducati by Lap 11.
Álex Márquez crashed at Turn 2 on Lap 13 while trying to catch up to Raúl Fernández.
Halfway through the race, both Pramac riders found themselves at the back of the pack, with Morbidelli in 19th and Álex Rins in 18th. Quartararo was the only Yamaha inside the points, running in 12th.
Takaaki Nakagami moved into the points in Lap 20, pushing Quartararo out and leaving him to join the rest of the Yamahas. Nakagami’s teammate Luca Marini was just behind, separated by Diego Moreira.
Despite the disappointing ending in the sprint, Acosta finally got the result he was looking for with his first win in the premier class. It was a special one for the team too, with the victory coming at Red Bull’s home race in Austria.
Martín and Bezzecchi took second and third on the podium, and by the end of the weekend, Martín is the new championship leader with a 12-point gap over Marc.
Don’t forget to catch the next session at Motegi Circuit as the title race continues on October 4th at 6am BST!
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