Acosta’s Austrian assault delivers breakthrough win

Pedro Acosta took his first premier-class victory at the Red Bull Ring while Jorge Martin bounced back to seize the championship initiative

Pedro Acosta finally has his first MotoGP Grand Prix victory after a superb Sunday ride at the Red Bull Ring, where the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star turned a disappointing Saturday into a career milestone at KTM’s home circuit. The win came after nearly three years of trying and ended a run of 15 MotoGP podiums without a victory, while Jorge Martin’s second place gave the championship leader important momentum in the title fight.

Saturday had already reshaped the weekend before Sunday’s main event. Jorge Martin won the Tissot Sprint after an opening lap that saw him go from first at Turn 1 to eighth by Turn 3, then fight back past Brad Binder, Francesco Bagnaia, Ai Ogura, Alex Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez. Acosta had looked set to take Sprint honours after grabbing the lead from Marc Marquez and building a two-second margin, only to crash out of the lead at Turn 2a with three laps remaining after he missed his braking marker due to checking his fuel levels. After the race he summed it up succinctly with “I f***ed” up.”

Martin capitalised to take victory ahead of Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi, with Ogura fourth, Alex Marquez fifth, Bagnaia sixth, Johann Zarco seventh, Fermin Aldeguer eighth and Binder ninth. That result put Martin three points clear of Marc Marquez in the standings and set the tone for an important Sunday.

Acosta’s first Sunday win in MotoGP arrived in ideal circumstances, with the 25-point haul coming at the Red Bull Ring in front of KTM and Red Bull on home ground. He beat Martin and Marco Bezzecchi after taking control of the race in the opening half, while Martin’s runner-up finish extended his championship lead to 12 points over Marc Marquez, who crossed the line in fifth.

The opening stages belonged to Aprilia, with Martin leading away from Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura. Marc Marquez lost three positions on the first lap, allowing Acosta to move into fourth before the KTM rider quickly started picking his way forward. Bezzecchi briefly took the lead from Martin at the start of Lap 2, only for the polesitter to respond at Turn 3, while Acosta passed Ogura for third at Turn 6.

The next decisive move came on Lap 4, when Acosta surged into second at Turn 2b, the same section where his Sprint race mistake had happened less than a day earlier. From there he locked onto Martin, and on Lap 9 he made his move for the lead on the run from Turn 1 to Turn 2a.

Behind them, the race became complicated for Marc Marquez. Soon after passing Ogura for fourth, he ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped behind both Ogura and Brad Binder, then lost another place to Fermin Aldeguer after another mistake at the same corner. Although he got back ahead of Aldeguer on Lap 20, the front group had already escaped.

At half distance, Acosta led Martin by 0.7s, with Bezzecchi another second back and Ogura still in touch in fourth. The Aprilias remained a threat as the laps counted down and Ogura was particularly quick, but Acosta responded when needed and fired in a 1:30.693 on Lap 22 to steady the race. He rebuilt his margin over the closing laps and then completed the final lap cleanly to secure the breakthrough victory by 1.2s.

Martin had to fend off late pressure from Bezzecchi, with just 0.192s separating the pair at the finish. Ogura returned strongly in fourth, only 0.9s away from the podium, while Marc Marquez had to settle for fifth, 7.3s from victory. Binder followed in sixth for his best result of the season, giving Red Bull KTM Factory Racing a strong double result at home.

Francesco Bagnaia finished seventh, while Aldeguer was classified eighth after receiving a post-race three-second penalty for causing contact. Fabio Di Giannantonio took ninth and Johann Zarco completed the top 10. Enea Bastianini, Raul Fernandez, Takaaki Nakagami, Luca Marini and Diogo Moreira collected the remaining points.

For Jack Miller, it was the opposite story. Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP endured its most difficult weekend of the season at the Red Bull Ring, with problems beginning in the early sessions and continuing through to the race. The team worked to improve consistency but Miller suffered a major tyre performance drop at mid-race distance, leaving him trying to manage wheelspin and bring the bike home rather than fight for stronger positions.

Martin heads to Motegi with the championship initiative and a 12-point lead over Marc Marquez after taking second on Sunday and Sprint victory on Saturday, while Bezzecchi has slipped further behind and now sits 42 points back despite another strong weekend. Marquez, despite starting from the front row, appeared to struggle at times with the multiple heavy braking points at the Red Bull Ring, a venue where he has enjoyed excellent results in the past, perhaps due to the impact the multiple surgeries have had on the strength of his right arm and shoulder. That will be worth watching again at Motegi, which also features a stop-and-go layout with a heavy onus on braking, meaning Marquez could be in for another damage-limitation weekend. Bezzecchi has lost further ground in the championship as well, but cannot be counted out if he can recapture his early season form.

Pedro Acosta – P1
“The first one is always special, and in front of so many Austrian fans. There were many KTM t-shirts and I’m so happy for the team, they deserve it more than me. I had many good people around yesterday when I f**ked up. This result was amazing.”

Jorge Martin – P2
“It was a great weekend. Getting back to this level of speed and having good fitness after the doubts in Misano make me extremely happy. I wanted to fight for the win, but battling with Pedro was quite difficult, although I tried all the way to the end.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P3
“We truly achieved the maximum, and I’m pleased with the way I improved throughout the weekend. My performance wasn’t bad on Friday, but I wasn’t on par with the leaders. Saturday, we managed to remediate, even with a bit of luck. In the race, on the other hand, I think it was truly a good result. At the end, I got very close to Jorge. I may have missed the opportunity to try and overtake on turn 1 because of a small mistake, but in any case, I gave it one hundred percent.”

Jack Miller – P21
“It‘s honestly a pretty frustrating one, and I‘m disappointed with how the race went. I was able to hang in there reasonably well in the first part of the race, but from around lap 13 or 14 the tyre performance really started to drop and I struggled a lot with the rear. Once that happened, there was not much I could do. I was trying to pick the bike up and manage the acceleration, but I was still getting a lot of spin and losing time. It became more about trying to get the bike to the finish than fighting for the positions we wanted. It‘s particularly frustrating because we have experienced something similar earlier in the season, so we need to understand why this is happening and what we can do differently. There are things we need to look at from this weekend, and we‘ll go through the data carefully and try to make sure we learn from it.”

2026 MOTOGP CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 15

MOTO2 – Guevara claws back points as Agius strikes trouble

Izan Guevara delivered a controlled Moto2 victory in Austria to trim Manuel Gonzalez’s championship advantage to 35.5 points. The BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2 rider took his second win of the season ahead of Filip Salač and David Alonso, while Gonzalez recovered to fourth after a difficult opening lap.

Gonzalez grabbed the holeshot, but his race quickly unravelled when Salač moved through and the championship leader was pushed down the order. Guevara and Ivan Ortola also advanced, and by Lap 11 Guevara had stretched his lead to 1.8s. Salač later took second from Ortola, while Gonzalez eventually made his way to fourth on Lap 17.

A big front-end moment at Turn 9 briefly unsettled Guevara, but he gathered it up, kept the gap under control and stayed clear to the flag. Salač and Alonso joined him on the podium, with Ortola ending the day fifth. Alonso Lopez, Daniel Holgado, Barry Baltus, Deniz Öncü and Luca Lunetta completed the top 10.

Senna Agius was unable to convert his weekend speed into points after an electronic problem forced him out. The 21-year-old showed improved pace, made a solid start and was on track for a top-eight result, but a technical issue that appeared on lap two eventually sent him back to the pits around halfway through the race. The retirement leaves him fifth in the standings after dropping one place, having endured some truly abysmal luck this season with multiple non-points scoring finishes due to having being taken out by other riders and technical issues.

Senna Agius – DNF
“It was a weekend where I felt particularly in good shape and was able to improve my performance. After a good start, I was on pace for the top 8, but then a technical problem arose in lap two. I try to stay as positive as ever, and my first instinct is always to never give up. So, I’m assuming that we’ll all move forward as a group now and understand what’s going on. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this bad luck lately. But I won’t let it get me down, and I’ll keep fighting to get back to the top.”

2026 MOTO2 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 15

MOTO3 – Quiles closes on title as Kelso misses late chance

Maximo Quiles took a ninth Moto3 win of the season at the Red Bull Ring and moved closer to wrapping up the 2026 title. The CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team rider capitalised when David Almansa crashed out of the lead on Lap 8, then went on to beat Brian Uriarte and Alvaro Carpe. KTM also secured the manufacturer’s championship with the result.

Almansa led early, briefly gave up a place as instructed, then reclaimed the front before he and Quiles broke clear from the rest. Quiles was warned for track limits on Lap 6, but the race turned two laps later when Almansa crashed at Turn 2B. That left Quiles in command, and he built enough of a margin to control the remainder of the race.

Uriarte finished second, five seconds ahead of Carpe in third, while Eddie O’Shea claimed a career-best fourth and Guido Pini was fifth. Casey O’Gorman took sixth, followed by Adrian Cruces, Marco Morelli, Hakim Danish and Yamanaka.

Joel Kelso spent the race in the large fight for fourth place and remained in contention for a strong result deep into the Grand Prix. A mistake on the final lap, however, cost him ground and left him 11th at the finish, denying him the chance to challenge for what would have been his best result of the season.

Joel Kelso – P11
“A tough race, fighting in the group for 4th place. Unfortunately, a mistake on the last lap cost me the chance to push for my best result of the season. Off to the flyaways now, which I always really enjoy! Let’s keep moving forward.”

2026 MOTO3 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 15