Pedro Acosta finished third in the Misano MotoGP after a front-wheel lock at Turn 7 ended his attempt to close further on the Marquez brothers. The Red Bull KTM rider had reduced Marc Marquez’s lead to 1.687 seconds and set his fastest lap on lap 23 of 27. Once the scare arrived, Acosta decided that pressing on offered too much risk for too little gain.

Acosta said that was the moment to “chill a bit”. With Fermin Aldeguer still at a safe distance behind, he chose to secure the podium. The result was one position lower than his runner-up finish at Aragon, yet Acosta considered the Misano race the better overall performance. His assessment followed a particularly difficult weekend, during which he had struggled far more than usual in the braking zones.

The turnaround followed Acosta’s sixth place in Saturday’s Sprint. KTM changed the RC16 completely for the main race and, in Acosta’s view, the late-race pace became strong enough to fight with Ducati and Aprilia, as it had at Aragon. The podium lifted him to fifth in the world championship, ahead of the injured Ai Ogura. When Acosta returns to Misano in 2027, he is due to do so as Marc Marquez’s factory Ducati teammate.