Pedro Acosta claimed his maiden MotoGP victory with a dominant performance at the Austrian Grand Prix, while Jorge Martin extended his points lead over Marc Marquez with second.
Lining up fourth on the grid, Acosta dropped to fifth at the start but quickly recovered lost ground, picking his rivals with ease aboard the factory KTM.
Passing polesitter Martin on lap nine of 28, the 22-year-old pulled away at the front, taking the chequered flag with a winning margin of 1.01s
The result marked Acosta’s first victory in the premier class in 56 attempts, as well as the first for KTM since the 2022 Thai Grand Prix.
At the start of the race, Martin pulled away cleanly from pole to grab the holeshot, while both Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura passed Marquez in the opening sequence of corners to establish an Aprilia 1-2-3.
Bezzecchi then began piling up pressure on his Aprilia team-mate Martin, passing him under braking at the start of lap two, only for the Spaniard to reclaim the lead at Turn 3 and pull clear.
Meanwhile, Acosta was on the move after dropping to fifth at the start, passing Marquez on the opening lap before clearing Ogura on the following tour. Closing the gap to Bezzecchi steadily, he overtook the Italian at Turn 2 on lap two before setting off after the other Aprilia of Martin, who was running half a second up the road.
Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Acosta attempted multiple moves on Martin over the next few laps, but his countryman covered the line each time to keep him at bay. But the KTM star finally broke through on lap nine, snatching the lead from the Aprilia as he accelerated out of Turn 1.
Acosta couldn’t completely break away from Martin through the middle phase of the race, but was able to maintain a solid lead of eight tenths to prevent the 2024 champion from mounting a surprise attack.
With eight laps to run, the KTM rider picked up his pace, extending his advantage to a second. The two Aprilias could do nothing to respond to Acosta’s pace, as Acosta romped to a sensational win in front of KTM’s home crowd.
Martin came under pressure from his team-mate Bezzecchi in the final laps, but he held on to finish second and extend his advantage at the top of the standings.
Returning to MotoGP this weekend after his injury layoff, Trackhouse sophomore Ogura rounded out the Spielberg weekend with another fourth-place result.
Reigning champion Marquez had a topsy-turvy race in Austria, running wide at Turn 1 on lap nine and dropping to seventh by the midway point of the race. However, he regained his composure and worked his back to the front, taking the chequered flag in fifth to limit the damage to Martin.
Brad Binder secured his best result of the season in sixth to bring more delight for KTM, while Fermin Aldeguer ended up seventh for Gresini after starting the race from 12th.
Francesco Bagnaia ran right behind Marquez at one stage but eventually wound up eighth aboard the factory Ducati, just ahead of VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio and the top Honda of LCR rider Johann Zarco.
Yamaha failed to score at the Red Bull Ring in a race that witnessed only one retirement, Gresini’s Alex Marquez, who crashed from 12th place just before the halfway point of the race.
MotoGP Austrian GP results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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