Pedro Acosta says he felt like a “mobile chicane” after Marc Marquez passed him for the lead and disappeared into the distance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Acosta engaged in a tough, if short, scrap with reigning world champion Marquez at Balaton Park on Sunday, as an opening lap crash involving the Aprilias left them as the only victory contender.
The KTM rider appeared the stronger of the pair in the early stages after passing Marquez on lap 2 and building a buffer of over a second on Michelin’s soft rubber.
But the Ducati star, running the more durable medium tyre, closed the gap just before the midpoint of the race and completed a pass at the Turn 9/10 chicane.
Acosta immediately retaliated and snatched the position back into Turn 12, with the two even making contact as they exited the final corner.
However, when Marquez made another move on Acosta at the chicane on the following lap, the 22-year-old had no answer - and had to settle for another runner-up finish.
While Marquez’s victory was put down to his renewed advantage in left-hand corners, Acosta explained how his countryman got a great run through Turn 8 to attack him into the chicane.
“Being honest, we can discuss that he was weakest in the right ones [corners], but he was super fast in Turn 8 and he was passing me as if I was a mobile chicane,” he said.
“But I never give up, and if he passed me, I tried to pass him back. The problem was that in the last [move] he blocked me and then I was already [too far behind]
“But anyway, it is always nice to battle with Marc. There were some really clean overtakes, some contacts but it was inside the legal side.”
He added: “It is always super nice to battle with the champ. It's never easy to try to re-overtake a guy with Marc’s experience. I enjoyed it. I think it's the third battle already that I lost [with him] - the second one maybe.
“Anyway, if I keep having this battle with Marc, it means that we are making an improved performance in the last couple of seasons.”
WOAAAAH
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 7, 2026
BIG CONTACT BETWEEN @37_pedroacosta and @marcmarquez93 ⚔️#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/hsw0vLlZXy
Despite clearly being the fastest rider within KTM’s roster and registering some impressive performances, a maiden grand prix win continues to elude Acosta.
The Spaniard started the 2026 season with a first-place finish in the Buriram sprint and has led several grands prix since then, but a variety of factors have prevented him from winning a Sunday race.
Asked if he felt he was closer to becoming a MotoGP race winner, he said: “It's a matter of trying. Last year, I was struggling a lot in qualifying. Now I'm coming back, being much more consistent because last year I was crashing a lot in these moments of the season.
“I think we'll arrive soon. In the end, it's a matter of trying and a matter of keep believing.”
While KTM remains a step behind Aprilia and Ducati, which have shared all eight grands prix wins so far in 2026, Acosta believes the progress the Austrian marque has made has allowed him to cut down on crashes.
“Last year, if I tried to do things like that, I was normally crashing 80% of the time,” he admitted.
“It's true that the bike improved, but it's quite difficult to understand why we were suffering that much one week ago [in Mugello] and here we were fast to fight. We have to understand this because if not it's quite difficult to improve.”
