Pedro Acosta reveals the shocking error in the Sprint: here’s what happened to the KTM rider

Heavy disappointment for the KTM rider, who was dominating the sprint race before suddenly crashing: he makes no excuses and takes full responsibility.

This seems like the right weekend to see Pedro Acosta win his first proper race in MotoGP, considering that in Thailand he was awarded the victory after Marc Marquez’s penalty. At the Austrian Grand Prix, KTM’s home event, the Spaniard has a highly competitive RC16, as was clear from Friday’s practice. In Qualifying he missed pole position by just a few thousandths, then in the Sprint he took the lead and was controlling with a gap before crashing at Turn 2 with three laps to go. It looked done, but an unexpected mistake spoiled the party for the Austrian team. There’s a lot of regret, but there will also be a strong desire for redemption heading into Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring.

The two-time world champion explained what led him to crash in the sprint race at Spielberg: "Totally my mistake. I was looking at the lights on the dashboard, I lost a bit of focus and missed the braking point. I ran wide and crashed. I’m trying not to think about it anymore; tomorrow I hope to be as fast as I was today."

A fatal distraction for Acosta, who can only shoulder all the responsibility for retiring from a Sprint he was on course to win unchallenged. There’s plenty of regret, but the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider is determined to get his revenge: "I was riding really well," he adds, "and without making mistakes, so I think we have the potential to do a good race on Sunday. Talk with the team? There wasn’t much to say, because it was totally my fault. We’ll try to make up for it tomorrow. The potential to do well is there; we’ll see how I feel with the medium tire."

Pedro knows he made a mistake and there’s no need for a detailed debrief with the team to discuss what happened. More importantly, it will be crucial to understand how to optimize the technical package for the long race, whether there are changes to try in the Warm Up to take a step forward and respond to any moves from Aprilia and Ducati.

The most dangerous of all could be Jorge Martin, today’s winner after securing pole position. He seemed like the only one with the pace to stay with Acosta. Sunday’s race will be a different story, but it would be surprising not to see El Tiburon in the fight for victory: this could be his big chance to step onto the top step in MotoGP—no room for waste. KTM is also eager to return to winning ways after four years without a victory.

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