Acosta dominates to deliver maiden MotoGP win in Austria
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team leader ends near three-year wait for victory with sensational win in his team’s home Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pedro Acosta bounced back from a crash whilst leading Saturday’s Sprint race to ride to his maiden MotoGP victory in the team’s home race at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday afternoon.
After scoring 15 podium finishes and coming close to victory numerous times since stepping up to the sport’s premier class in 2024, the Spaniard had nevertheless missed out until Sunday afternoon at the home Grand Prix of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Acosta had thrown away a sure victory in Saturday’s Sprint, when he crashed out whilst dominating proceedings and handed the win to Riders’ Championship leader Jorge Martín of Aprilia Racing.
In Sunday’s feature race, Acosta was determined to right that costly error and rode an absolutely perfect 28 laps.
Starting from third place on the grid, Acosta didn’t get the best start, dropping down outside of the top five in the opening turns. He wasted no time in recovering however and had pushed back through to third on Lap 2. Then, on Lap 4, Acosta passed Marco Bezzecchi for second place, splitting the two factory Aprilia riders, as championship leader Martín led.
Martín and Acosta quickly began to gap the rest of the field and on Lap 9 Acosta made his move with the race-winning pass. From there he controlled the race masterfully to cross the line 1.017s clear of Martín and into the record books as a MotoGP winner for the first time.
It was an emotional moment for both Acsota and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing made even better by the fact that team-mate Brand Binder rode home in sixth place to score his best result of 2026 to date and put to KTMs inside the top 10.
Further down the order, Johann Zarco claimed 10th place on the Castrol Honda LCR, one position ahead of Red Bull KTM Tech 3’s Enea Bastianini. Diogo Moreira and Pol Espargaró finished 15th and 16th respectively while Toprak Razgatlıoğlu came home in 20th.
Doublee podium finishes in Austria helped Martín to extend his lead over Marc Márquez at the top of the Riders’ Championship standings to 12 points while Acosta moved up once again to fourth in the standings and is now just 30 points outside of the top three ahead of the next block of fly-away races.
Austrian Grand Prix result
- Pedro Acosta – ESP – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 42m 16.996s
- Jorge Martín – ESP – Aprilia Racing +1.017s
- Marco Bezzecchi – ITA – Aprilia Racing +1.209s
- Ai Ogura – JPA – SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team +2.139s
- Marc Márquez – ESP – Ducati Lenovo Team
2026 MotoGP rider standings
- Jorge Martín – ESP – Aprilia Racing 306 points
- Marc Márquez – ESP – Ducati Lenovo Team 294
- Marco Bezzecchi – ITA – Aprilia Racing 264
- Pedro Acosta – ESP – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 234
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – ITA – Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team 230