After two crashes on Saturday, KTM rider Pedro Acosta fought back strongly in the main race in Hungary, thanks in part to mental work
Pedro Acosta finished a strong second at the Hungarian Grand Prix after a turbulent weekend. After suffering two crashes in qualifying and the sprint on Saturday, the KTM rider bounced back on Sunday with a controlled performance.
Acosta had already felt fast and competitive on Friday. It was even enough to narrowly beat dominant rider Marc Marquez to the fastest time. “Everything was pretty easy, I had a good feeling right away,” the Spaniard recalled.
But on Saturday, nothing went right. “It was a complete disaster. I had to cool down first and try to get a normal result.“
Working in the pits until 2 a.m.
After the two crashes, the mechanics had to build two new bikes. Acosta made it clear after the race how much effort went into this: ”The team managed to get me a completely new bike after the sprint. I want to thank every single one of them because they worked until two in the morning yesterday to prepare two completely new bikes for me.”
But the 21-year-old also worked on himself to avoid repeating the mistakes he made in qualifying and the sprint. A conversation with Carmelo Morales in particular helped him to get his emotions under control.
“We had a serious conversation about my mistakes and how I deal with my emotions. And today it looks like I listened to him. So: Thanks to KTM, Red Bull, to him, to Dani [Pedrosa], who is watching on TV, and to everyone who is trying to make the KTM project even better.”
Gap to Ducati: “We’re getting closer.”
Acosta was aggressive in the race itself, making up several positions right at the start. He then made decisive moves against Franco Morbidelli and Marco Bezzecchi to finish on the podium. “The pace was right.”
Beware of the Shark ⚠️@37_pedroacosta prevails on Bez! ⚔️HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/3yzRSnR4Ie
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) August 24, 2025
In the end, however, series winner Marc Marquez was still more than four seconds ahead. When asked how close he was to his first win of the season, Acosta remained cautious. “Marc is really strong at the moment. We can’t have any expectations, we just have to stay calm and manage the races cleanly.”
The Spaniard knows that winning requires above all consistency: “We still miss out on complete weekends too often.” He was fast on Friday, but Saturday’s qualifying made everything more difficult. So it’s important to get a better position on the grid. “You can’t always rely on a comeback to save the weekend,” he knows.
Acosta explicitly praises the latest technical advances in KTM’s work. Since the aerodynamic update at his home Grand Prix in Austria, the bike has been “smoother and easier to ride.” In the past, even a small mistake could lead to a crash, but now he has “more leeway.”
Nevertheless, he is not yet at Ducati level. “There’s still something missing. As I said, I need to be calmer and try to keep up in qualifying. But we’re getting closer.”