Pedro Acosta, from rage to the podium: now he asks KTM for a "gift"

Great performance by the two-time world champion at Misano: the podium didn’t seem possible after Friday and Saturday, yet he pulled off another piece of magic with the RC16.

What could Pedro Acosta do if he were riding a Ducati or an Aprilia in this 2026 MotoGP World Championship? He would surely be fighting for the title. If he’s achieving results with KTM that no other rider from the brand can match, just imagine what he could do on one of the best bikes on the grid. Even at Misano Adriatico we saw how much he can make the difference with his enormous talent.

After seventh in qualifying and sixth in the sprint race, the two-time world champion managed to take an excellent third place in the main race. The gap to winner Marc Marquez was 2.326s, while to Alex it was 1.669s. Considering he’s riding the RC16 and the next-best KTM finished eighth with Enea Bastianini (+20.858s from Marc), he pulled off a masterpiece.

The rider from Mazarrón was not at all happy with how Saturday went, and his words were crucial in pushing the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team to make the right changes to the RC16: "I was missing something," he told Sky Sport MotoGP, "but I was fast and we have to be satisfied with the weekend. On Saturday I was really pissed off and we changed the whole bike. The team worked hard to understand what was happening, because it was strange that I was struggling under braking with the KTM. We made a good step; already in Warm Up I felt good."

KTM is working hard to give him the best bike possible, and Acosta hopes that racing in Austria next weekend will spur the Mattighofen manufacturer to do a bit more: "We’ve improved, but we still struggle to be fast at mid-corner. We’re also missing a bit of acceleration performance, but I hope KTM does something for the home GP in Austria."

The two-time world champion has always spoken clearly to KTM and in front of the media; he knows what his RC16 is missing to be a winner and hopes that at the Red Bull Ring GP he can count on a highly competitive technical package. You can’t work miracles in a few days, but this weekend Acosta and his current team will race together in Austria for the last time before his future move to Ducati. There should be a special motivation in the box.

So far they have never won a main race together; their only triumph was the Sprint in Thailand. For Pedro and KTM, taking the top step of the podium in Spielberg would be fantastic. A very nice gift both parties hope to give each other, even if with Ducati and Aprilia so strong it’s never easy. Acosta hopes to get an extra boost from the Mattighofen factory, so he can take his first Sunday victory in MotoGP. We’ll see if he gets his wish or if he’ll have to make do and squeeze the most out of what he has at his disposal, as always.