Acosta takes P6 for KTM in Misano MotoGP Sprint
Pedro Acosta qualified seventh and finished sixth in the 13-lap MotoGP Sprint at Misano, the best Saturday result of the four KTM RC16 riders.
- 6th
- +6.944 seconds
- 14 of 22
- 0.217 seconds
What Happened
Round 14 of 22 of the 2026 MotoGP season brought the championship to Misano, on Italy's Rimini coastline, for the San Marino Grand Prix. Pedro Acosta, the reference rider on the KTM RC16, qualified seventh and took sixth in the 13-lap Sprint, 6.944 seconds behind winner Marc Marquez. An early rainstorm on Saturday left the track drying for Free Practice 2 before blue skies returned for qualifying. The main 27-lap MotoGP race is scheduled for 14:00 CEST on Sunday.
MotoGP reached lap-record pace with less than one second dividing the 15 fastest riders; Acosta defied a Turn 1 crash to sit 6th after Practice, joined in Q2 by Pol Espargaro.
An early rainstorm left the track drying just in time for Free Practice 2, which was followed by brighter conditions for qualification.
Acosta qualified 7th, about 0.6 seconds from pole, and finished the 13-lap Sprint in 6th; the other three KTM RC16s crossed the line together in P14, P15 and P16.
The 27-lap MotoGP Grand Prix of San Marino starts at the customary time of 14:00 CEST.
- Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): 7th in qualification, 6th in the Sprint
- Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Tech3): 12th in qualification, 16th in the Sprint, on his third substitute appearance of the season in place of Maverick Viñales
- Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3): 16th in qualification after missing Q2 by a hundredth of a second, 15th in the Sprint
- Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing): 19th in qualification, 14th in the Sprint after recovering five positions
- The three KTM RC16s of Binder, Bastianini and Espargaro crossed the finish line together, less than a second covering them
- Moto3: Brian Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was second on the grid, 0.217 seconds from pole; Valentin Perrone (Red Bull KTM Tech3) took P4, Rico Salmela (Tech3) was 8th and Alvaro Carpe (Ajo) recovered to 9th
- Moto2: Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) locked in 6th on the grid, while rookie Jose Antonio Rueda, who crashed in Practice, took 29th
- Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup: Fernando Bujosa won the first of two 15-lap races at Misano, the sixth and penultimate round of the 2026 season, with the second race on Sunday morning
“Quite frustrating. A lot of battling in the beginning and it cost us a lot of time otherwise we could have been closer to the podium. It is what it is. The pace between the medium and the soft tire is quite similar but I'm struggling a bit more to stop the bike here. It's not normally a weak point but it is here but, anyway, happy with the P6. Tomorrow will be a new day, a new challenge. We'll see.”
“A bit of a bittersweet feeling today. Top six for Pedro, and all the riders reached the finish, but the qualification was quite challenging. We were able to make a small comeback in the Sprint but it is not enough for us. We need to analyze why we could not use our good work from Friday, but on the other hand tomorrow is another day and the longer race. We have to invest everything we have and go again.”
Brad Binder said his Sprint went better than the beginning of the day, but that he is missing serious speed in the third sector and a couple more tenths there would change his weekend. Enea Bastianini said he expected something different because he had been strong on pace on Friday, but it was difficult to put temperature into the front tire in the morning, and overtaking in the Sprint was complicated. Pol Espargaro said his race rhythm was overall not bad and that he was almost chilling at the pace of P11, but that he still misses the aggression needed to overtake. Acosta had been 0.6 seconds from pole in Q2 and started from the first slot on the third row of the grid.
Why this matters
KTM's four MotoGP riders all finished the Sprint at the San Marino Grand Prix, but none reached the podium, so the team's attention turns to Sunday's full-length race. The session also matters for KTM's young rider academy, whose Moto3 and Moto2 riders qualified near the front for their Sunday races.
Terms in This Story
- Sprint
- A shortened race held on Saturday at some Grands Prix, run in addition to the main race and awarding fewer championship points.
- Q1 and Q2
- The two parts of qualifying: riders who are not fast enough in practice go into Q1, and the quickest of them join the already-seeded riders in Q2 to decide the front grid positions.
- Pole Position
- The first place on the starting grid, given to the rider who sets the fastest time in qualifying.
- Moto3
- The smallest-capacity class in the MotoGP World Championship, contested by young riders on lightweight prototype bikes.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.