MotoGP Thailand GP: Acosta grabs MotoGP breakthrough in sprint

Pedro Acosta can finally call himself a MotoGP winner after taking victory in the sprint at Buriram on Saturday.

The KTM rider went toe-to-toe with world champion Marc Marquez but emerged on top after a pulsating race that had everything.

Pole position man and favourite Marco Bezzecchi had to witness it all from the Aprilia box after falling while in the lead on lap two of the race.

With Bezzecchi out of the running, a likely battle between the Italian and Marquez turned into a scrap between Acosta and Marquez.

The Spanish youngster would not leave the elder statesman - and likely 2027 colleague at the factory Ducati squad - in peace. The race looked set to be decided at the final corner as Acosta rehearsed a block pass there multiple times - twice succeeding in crossing the finish line first before Marquez re-took the lead.

But the race was ultimately decided in very different fashion. On the penultimate lap, Acosta pounced on a slight error from Marquez in the twisty middle part of the lap, claiming the lead. But that wasn't the end of it.

Marquez produced a block pass of his own at the end of that lap - but it was anything but clean. He pushed his young challenger well wide, immediately triggering a stewards' investigation.

Working with remarkable speed, the stewards came to a decision with half a lap remaining. Marc received a dashboard message to the effect that he would have to drop one position.

The 33-year-old complied at the final corner, allowing Acosta his long-awaited first race win in MotoGP.

Raul Fernandez saved some pride for Aprilia by taking a solid third place aboard the Trackhouse entry.

His team-mate Ai Ogura was fourth after passing factory rider Jorge Martin late in the race.

Acosta's team-mate Brad Binder had a strong afternoon to take sixth, ahead of Joan Mir (Honda) and Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati), who lost time in a first-lap incident with Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati).

With Alex also dropping places in that clash, the way was cleared for Francesco Bagnaia to salvage the final point after missing Q2 earlier in the day and qualifying 13th.

SPRINT

All Stats

 

Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37		KTM	13	19'39.155				12
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93		Ducati	13	+0.108 19'39.263	0.108			9
3	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	13	+0.540 19'39.695	0.432			7
4	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79		Aprilia	13	+2.100 19'41.255	1.560			6
5	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89		Aprilia	13	+3.851 19'43.006	1.751			5
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	13	+4.612 19'43.767	0.761			4
7	J. Mir Honda HRC	36		Honda	13	+4.924 19'44.079	0.312			3
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	13	+5.748 19'44.903	0.824			2
9	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63		Ducati	13	+6.910 19'46.065	1.162			1
10	L. Marini Honda HRC	10		Honda	13	+7.796 19'46.951	0.886
11	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	13	+8.504 19'47.659	0.708
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	13	+8.577 19'47.732	0.073
13	D. Moreira Team LCR	11		Honda	13	+11.970 19'51.125	3.393
14	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21		Ducati	13	+12.395 19'51.550	0.425
15	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43		Yamaha	13	+13.467 19'52.622	1.072
16	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	13	+15.079 19'54.234	1.612
17	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23		KTM	13	+15.452 19'54.607	0.373
18	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42		Yamaha	13	+15.876 19'55.031	0.424
19	M. Viñales Tech 3	12		KTM	13	+21.445 20'00.600	5.569
20	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7		Yamaha	13	+25.860 20'05.015	4.415
21	M. Pirro Gresini Racing	51		Ducati	13	+27.892 20'07.047	2.032
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72		Aprilia	1	+12 Laps 2'30.673	12 Laps		Retirement
View full results

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