Pedro Acosta Wins in Spielberg: 56 Races to His First MotoGP Victory

• First MotoGP win on his 56th start in the premier class, 1.017 seconds ahead of Jorge Martin
• His 15 podiums without a Grand Prix win had been a record in the class
• First KTM victory since 2022 and the brand’s third success at its own home circuit

There are racers whose talent nobody doubts and who still go years without the one result that counts. Pedro Acosta was one of them. Since moving up to MotoGP in 2024, the Spaniard collected podiums, fastest laps and headlines, but no Sunday win. On 20 September 2026 that run ended at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, of all places at the home circuit of his employer KTM, and after a weekend that had already put him in the gravel twice.

How did Pedro Acosta win the Grand Prix of Austria?

Acosta won the 28-lap race by 1.017 seconds from Jorge Martin after working his way from fifth place to the front within the first nine laps. His winning time was 42:16.996 minutes, and his fastest lap was a 1:29.533.

The start initially went against him. From third on the grid, Acosta dropped to fifth in the first corner because Marco Bezzecchi got away well and Ai Ogura also went past. After that he moved forward step by step: Marc Marquez on lap one, Ogura on lap two, Bezzecchi on lap four. On lap eight he appeared alongside sprint winner Martin in turn four, and the two nearly touched. One lap later the move worked at the exit of turn one.

From then on Acosta rode a very controlled race. His lead hovered between roughly 0.8 and 1.1 seconds, and whenever Martin closed in, he picked up the pace again slightly. He describes that as a deliberate decision after Saturday: he tried to keep the gap at 0.5 to 0.7 seconds rather than making it bigger than necessary, while also watching fuel consumption, which is not easy at this circuit.

Behind him, Bezzecchi held third, closing to within less than two tenths of his team-mate Martin at the end but declining to attack. Ogura finished fourth, and Marc Marquez came home fifth around seven seconds down. Brad Binder took the second KTM to sixth. The top ten eventually contained two KTMs, three Aprilias, four Ducatis and one Honda, but no Yamaha.

Why did Acosta have to wait 56 races for his first win?

Acosta needed 56 starts in the premier class because, while he regularly reached the podium over three years, the KTM RC16 was for a long time not on the level of the leading bikes. Before Spielberg he had stood on the podium 15 times, eight times as runner-up and seven times in third, which gave him the record for the most MotoGP podiums without a Grand Prix win.

He made his debut in 2024 with the KTM satellite team Tech3 and was on the podium in only his second race, in Portugal. Five podiums in his rookie season, five more in 2025 after moving to the factory team, and five in the first 14 races of this season. He came particularly close in Austin and Indonesia in 2024, in Hungary, Indonesia and Malaysia in 2025, and in Thailand, Hungary and Aragon in 2026.

On top of that came technical and financial problems at KTM, and most recently a run of engine issues that troubled the Austrians for months. Things improved after the summer break, and in Aragon and Misano Acosta was closer to victory than ever before. He also made his own mistakes over the years, most notably in his rookie season in Japan after taking pole position.

The win at the Red Bull Ring was not only his first in MotoGP, but the 17th Grand Prix success of his world championship career. Six of them came in Moto3, eleven in Moto2. He was world champion in both classes, in Moto3 in his debut season in 2021 and in Moto2 in 2023. His previous Grand Prix win therefore dated back almost three years.

What had happened on Saturday and in the warm-up?

Acosta had crashed out of the lead in Saturday’s sprint and saw the gravel a second time in Sunday morning’s warm-up. In the sprint he had taken the lead on the opening lap and built a cushion of around 2.5 seconds before missing his braking point ahead of the chicane. Martin took the win.

The warm-up crash was the more costly of the two in its consequences. By his own account, Acosta destroyed his race bike, and Binder went down as well. The mechanics had to rebuild both machines in a short space of time and skipped lunch to do it. According to KTM, mechanics from the Tech3 team came over and helped out so that two bikes were ready in time.

Acosta went into the race tense accordingly. He speaks openly about how afraid he was of a third mistake: Saturday’s error had been huge, Sunday morning’s just as bad, and he simply did not want to make another mistake in KTM’s own house. His crew chief Paul Trevathan summed up the weekend on the official MotoGP feed: “It’s been a bit of an up and down weekend. He had the speed. Yesterday was a disaster for him also. To come back like this now, fantastic. Just the kid, you know? He’s giving us everything. So, really, really proud.”

The victory celebration in the chicane

Instead of a classic celebration lap, Acosta chose a nod to his own mistake. In exactly the chicane where he had crashed on Saturday, he laid his RC16 down on its right side after taking the flag and rolled across the ground. The marshals helped him pick the bike up again, and Jack Miller gave him a push so the engine fired up. There was no other way for him to celebrate this win, he said afterwards.

In parc fermé his first words were calmer. He said he still remembered his last win, in Indonesia in Moto2, and that the first is always something special. He added: “It’s a nice way to close a circle with KTM, in front of all the Austrian fans. There were many KTM flags around. I’m super happy for them, because they deserve it more than me.”

What does the win mean for KTM?

For KTM it was the eighth MotoGP win in total and the first since 2022, when Miguel Oliveira won in the rain. The brand’s most recent victory in dry conditions had come at the beginning of June 2022 in Barcelona, also courtesy of Oliveira.

At the Red Bull Ring itself it was KTM’s third success after Oliveira in 2020 with Tech3 and Brad Binder in 2021 with the factory team. That is notable not least because Ducati had won ten of the twelve MotoGP races held at this venue since 2016. Acosta is also the first rider this season to win a Grand Prix on neither a Ducati nor an Aprilia, and the 17th Spaniard with a win in the premier class.

The background to all this is a difficult summer. According to sources close to the manufacturer, there were seven engine failures in recent months because a supplier had delivered a faulty batch of performance parts. KTM had to reduce maximum revs temporarily until the sealed engines could be opened and the affected parts replaced. Yamaha had received a comparable exemption in 2020 over fragile valves.

The relief in the garage was correspondingly large. Motorsport director Pit Beirer and new KTM boss Gottfried Neumeister watched the race side by side and fell into each other’s arms after the chequered flag. “We waited a very long time for this moment. The pressure after the difficult summer, and now the win! I am lost for words, I am stunned,” Beirer said. On the stunt in the chicane he remarked drily: “He apparently enjoys riding fast and then lying down. This time he at least waited until the race was over.” He could barely bear the closing stages: “After what we went through yesterday, those were really tough 28 laps. We counted down the sectors on every lap.”

Neumeister highlighted the work of the team and pointed out that not only Acosta had ridden a strong race, but that Binder had also worked his way forward from a long way back. Even before the podium ceremony, Beirer announced a lengthy celebration, which was being prepared at the Red Bull Energy Station.

What is next for Acosta and the season?

With the win, Acosta moved up to fourth in the world championship, 72 points behind Martin. Martin leads after the weekend on 306 points, followed by Marc Marquez on 294 and Bezzecchi on 264.

For KTM, however, the win has a bitter aftertaste, because Acosta is leaving the brand at the end of the season. He has signed a multi-year deal with the Ducati factory team for 2027, where Marc Marquez will be his team-mate. Acosta sees exactly that as the reason why this success means more to him than an ordinary win: it is more emotional to win in the house of KTM and of Red Bull. He also pointed out how hard the company had to fight last year simply to stay in the championship, and that after the insolvency it had managed to recover the bike’s potential.

There was plenty of support from the paddock. Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 world champion, commented on the success with a nod to the long wait: “It took a long time. It’s great for him, because crash in the Sprint, crash this morning, and he was the fastest all the weekend. So, this weekend he really deserved the victory.” Quartararo’s own Sunday went the other way; he finished out of the points.

The 2026 season continues from 2 to 4 October with the Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi.

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