Pedro Acosta delivered his first MotoGP Grand Prix victory on Sunday 20 September 2026, winning the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Austria at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg to end a wait that had stretched across three seasons, 56 premier-class starts and 15 podium finishes. The 22-year-old Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider crossed the line 1.017 seconds ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin, with Marco Bezzecchi completing an all-Aprilia second and third — 0.192 seconds behind his Aprilia team-mate.
Recovery from the gravel to the top step
The circumstances made the achievement all the more striking. On Saturday afternoon Acosta had led the Tissot Sprint by roughly two seconds with three laps remaining before losing the front end at Turn 2a and crashing out, handing Martin a race he had appeared set to lose. Fewer than 24 hours later, Acosta crashed again in the Sunday morning warm-up. Crew chief Paul Trevathan, who has worked alongside the Spaniard since he joined the factory team in 2025, told reporters afterwards that the sequence of events made the Sunday reset genuinely difficult, particularly given the weight of expectation at KTM’s home circuit. He recounted that after the Sprint crash, Acosta immediately told the crew the error was entirely his own doing; Trevathan separately observed that great champions have a way of putting their mistakes behind them, and said that quality had been on full display across the weekend.
Acosta recovered from losing ground in the opening corners as Martin, Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura formed an Aprilia 1-2-3. He passed Marc Marquez on the opening lap, then moved ahead of Ogura and Bezzecchi to reach second. After several attempts to find a way past Martin, Acosta took the lead on lap nine.
Martin remained within a second for much of the middle phase of the race and, according to his own account, considered managing his tyres and fuel before mounting a late attack. He concluded, however, that Acosta was simply too well-controlled to be caught. Acosta extended his advantage back beyond a second with eight laps remaining and, despite slight compression in the final two laps, took the chequered flag with a margin of 1.017 seconds. Martin finished runner-up to extend his championship lead over Marc Marquez to 12 points, while Bezzecchi made it a double Aprilia podium in third.
Race result: top six
| Pos | Rider | Team | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pedro Acosta | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | Winner |
| 2 | Jorge Martin | Aprilia Racing | +1.017s |
| 3 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia Racing | +1.209s |
| 4 | Ai Ogura | SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team | +2.139s |
| 5 | Marc Marquez | Ducati Lenovo Team | +7.339s |
| 6 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | +8.720s |
KTM’s wait for a Grand Prix win ends
The victory was also KTM’s first full-length MotoGP Grand Prix win since Miguel Oliveira won a rain-affected race at Buriram in the 2022 Thai Grand Prix. Autosport noted that on that same Sunday in Thailand, Acosta finished 16th in the Moto2 race — then in the first season of his intermediate-class career. The gap between those two KTM victories encompasses the manufacturer’s financial collapse in late 2024, a subsequent administration process, and a prolonged period of structural instability that included the departure of former chief executive Stefan Pierer, the arrivals and departures of team manager Francesco Guidotti and technical chief Fabiano Sterlacchini, and the rescue of the business by Indian group Bajaj.
As Acosta completed the final three laps, television cameras found KTM chief executive Gottfried Neumeister and motorsport director Pit Beirer watching from the garage. When Acosta crossed the finish line, the two men embraced, visibly emotional. Autosport described it as a release of the enormous tension accumulated over the preceding 18 months. Neumeister said during the Austrian weekend that he had tried to persuade Acosta to remain with the manufacturer, but that the rider had explained his overriding ambition was to compete against Marc Marquez with identical machinery. Neumeister acknowledged there was nothing he could do about that wish.
Acosta is set to leave KTM for the factory Ducati team in 2027. The Austrian result gives him a first full-length MotoGP victory before that move, at a venue in KTM’s home country. He said the previous year had been difficult for both himself and the manufacturer, making the combination of weekend pace and a Grand Prix win particularly valuable to the team.
Trevathan’s praise and a changing of the guard
Trevathan — a New Zealander from Dunedin who has previously worked with riders including Miguel Oliveira, Mika Kallio and Pol Espargaro — was asked about the ceiling of Acosta’s potential following the win. He described the question as frightening, saying he could not provide an answer: the rate at which Acosta was learning and adapting, including returning from the summer break apparently having reset to a new level, was unlike anything he had observed on a similar timescale. Acosta had described Trevathan as a father figure in the aftermath of the triumph at Spielberg, and the crew chief’s remarks made clear the feeling was mutual. His time as Acosta’s crew chief is also set to end after 2026: Motorsport reported he is understood to be moving into a different role within KTM for the following season.
Brad Binder gave the Austrian manufacturer a second scoring finisher by taking sixth — his best result of the 2026 season — and offered straightforward congratulations to his team-mate, adding his expectation that Sunday’s win would be the first of many. Acosta himself, free of championship calculations, said he regarded himself as having nothing to lose in the current campaign and that being outside the title fight allowed him to ride without the constraints that weigh on those still in contention.
Championship picture: Martin extends his lead
Marc Marquez endured a difficult afternoon. He described his front brake lever as inconsistent throughout the race, varying from braking zone to braking zone, and said that at one point it felt entirely empty, forcing him wide at Turn 1 on lap nine and dropping him as low as seventh. He recovered composure and worked back to fifth, but the 7.339-second deficit to Acosta was a result that did little to arrest the growing gap to Martin in the standings. Marquez now trails the championship leader by 12 points heading to Motegi.