MalaysianGP: Acosta Braves the Rain to Win Sepang Sprint

Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) kept a cool head as raindrops fell on the Petronas Sepang International Circuit and won the Tissot Sprint at the Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia on Saturday, 31 October 2026. The 22-year-old crossed the line 0.578s ahead of championship leader Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team), his future Ducati teammate, and Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) finished third. It was Acosta's second Sprint win of the season and his first since the opening round at Buriram in Thailand. He called it "totally unexpected" in a separate interview. Asked whether it felt like his first win, he said: "It feels like the first, I would say, yeah."

Acosta started third on a front row covered by just 0.084s. Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) had taken a rare pole, 0.070s ahead of his brother Marc. The race started dry, but raindrops soon appeared and the white flag came out early, so riders were allowed to swap bikes. Alex crashed out of the lead on lap 3, although it isn't clear whether the rain caught him out. Ai Ogura (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team) took over at the front, and the Dutch GP winner found himself leading a four-way fight with Acosta, Marc and Bezzecchi. Marc never looked fully comfortable and was only fourth in the early laps.

Ogura's pace surprised Acosta. The Japanese rider had been third in Friday's Practice and qualified fourth, but in the Sprint he was even quicker than Acosta expected. "It's true that I was maybe pushing a bit too much, trying to follow Ai in the dry," Acosta said. "But yeah, like I said, for me it was unexpected how fast he was compared to the rest of the weekend."

The rain made the race hard to read. "Thankfully, not that much," Acosta said when asked about it. He explained that some corners were tricky at times. "It was quite difficult to understand how much it was raining every lap," he said. "But anyway, I think we managed it in the best way. We took the risk that we needed." Speaking separately, he said the last laps were the hardest. "In the last two laps it started to rain a bit more, mainly in T2, T3, and this was making everything difficult even when I was leading the race." Not everyone made the same call. Joan Mir, Iker Lecuona, Franco Morbidelli and Maverick Viñales all pitted for bikes on wet tyres, but the heavy rain didn't arrive until moments after the chequered flag. Viñales was the best of them in 15th.

Acosta finally got past Ogura in the closing laps and stayed in front as the rain got heavier. Behind him, Marc passed Ogura at Turn 14. Ogura tried to take second back at Turn 4 on the next lap but ran wide on the exit. Bezzecchi also got the better of him to take third and top Aprilia honours, leaving Ogura fourth. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) was fifth and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) sixth. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) and Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3) completed the top nine.

Acosta was honest about what helped him. Unlike Marc and Bezzecchi, he isn't fighting for the title, and he said that gave him more freedom. "In the end, I was also the only one fighting for nothing, so yeah, I'm happy," he said. That freedom mattered because mixed conditions aren't usually his strength. "Normally I'm not the best guy in mixed conditions, but I think today I gained some experience," he said. He was also determined to keep it clean. "I was really focused, even with the rain, on trying not to make any mistakes like in Austria. Anyway, we did a good job."

His closest call came right at the start, when he and Ogura nearly collided. Acosta saw the funny side. "It was close, it was close. I mean, I won't say anything, because when you are that fast, like he was compared to me, there's no way," he said. "I was like a mobile chicane there compared to how much speed he had. But anyway, it was close, but thankfully it was okay." It's not the first time he has used that line this season. In June, he said he felt like a "mobile chicane" after Marc Marquez passed him for the lead at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Acosta knows Sunday will be a very different test. "We have to see what we can do tomorrow. In the end, it will be a massively different race, managing the tyres and all these things," he said. A reporter noted that he'd said he was still missing some feeling with the bike and asked what he expects on Sunday. He pointed to the weather and to a problem that hasn't gone away. "Let's see how the weather conditions are, but in the end it will be so difficult. I'm still struggling a lot with the front when I'm behind the guys," he said.

The result also shaped the title fight. Second place gave Marc nine points and stretched his lead to 19 over Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing). Martin withdrew after Saturday morning's practice because of the right radius he fractured at Phillip Island, and he now feels the title is "already lost". Bezzecchi stays third, 52 points behind. Acosta's 12 points keep him fourth, 99 points off the lead, at round 19 of 22. Marc missed out on what would have been his 10th Sprint win of 2026 and the 25th of his career, but his grip on the title is getting tighter.

The win shows how much Acosta has grown. He rode a clean race in conditions that don't usually suit him, and he stayed out while several riders gambled on wet bikes. He waited for the right moment against a rider who was faster than he expected, then held off the reigning World Champion as the rain got heavier. That should give him real confidence for the final rounds, and beating his future teammate won't hurt either. However, he was the first to admit that the circumstances helped. With no title to protect, he could take risks that Marc and Bezzecchi couldn't afford. A 10-lap Sprint also hides problems that matter over a full race. Sunday's Grand Prix is twice as long, and grip drops quickly on Sepang's worn surface, as Alex Marquez warned on Friday. On top of that, Acosta says he still struggles with the front when he's following other riders, so if he gets stuck behind someone early on, it could cost him. The near-miss with Ogura at the start also showed how small the margins are.

Even so, Saturday rewarded the rider who kept his head while others gambled, and it ended a long wait for a win since Thailand. Acosta will start Sunday's Grand Prix from third on the grid on 1 November 2026. With the weather still uncertain, he'll need to stay just as calm over twice the distance to complete a Sepang double.

Credit Photo : Sorawit/SNE Sports