Pedro Acosta riding “insane” at Aragon MotoGP, “a bag of oxygen” for KTM

Pol Espargaro has issued glowing praise of Pedro Acosta after the KTM rider finished second at the Aragon MotoGP.

Espargaro was riding at Aragon in his second fill-in appearance for Maverick Vinales at the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, and finished 16th in Sunday’s 23-lap Aragon Grand Prix, which was won by Marc Marquez.

It was Marquez’s eighth MotoGP win at Aragon and his third in succession, the Spaniard having been unbeaten at MotorLand since moving to Ducati in 2024.

1.7 seconds behind him was Pedro Acosta, whose second place saw him finish 23 seconds ahead of the next-best KTM of Enea Bastianini in eighth.

In the opinion of Espargaro, the performance of Acosta is a source of motivation for KTM, even if the 22-year-old will leave the Austrian factory for Ducati at the end of this season.

“It's nice to see that the bike is there for Pedro [Acosta], to see that Pedro's race today is unbelievable, it's super,” Pol Espargaro said after the Aragon MotoGP.

“It's like a big bag of oxygen for everyone inside the factory and this is going to help us to keep pushing for Pedro because he deserves the best material and bike for the next races. 

“I mean, I have no words for what he did in Silverstone, but today, yesterday, he is going insane. 

“Okay, this shows that Pedro is on the top of the bike, he's doing much more than what the bike can do.”

Espargaro added that the races of Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini – both of whom finished inside the top-10 – showed that the RC16 was working well at Aragon.

“If we check, for example, Brad [Binder] and Enea [Bastianini], the race was not bad,” he said.

“They arrived 25 seconds [off the win], counting that I think Martin arrived to 12. So just 10 seconds to Martin starting from almost the last of the grid – that's not too bad. 

“So, it means here today the bike was not too bad and that gives us a lot of energy for the next ones.”