Pedro Acosta won early this Saturday morning (28) the Thailand GP Sprint, the race that opened the 2026 MotoGP season. In one of the strongest battles with Marc Márquez, the KTM rider took the lead on the penultimate lap and, after an incident where he ran off track after sharing a corner with his opponent, saw the current champion penalized, and won the short race at the Buriram circuit.
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Márquez, with a Ducati, completed the race in second position after yielding the lead to Acosta in the final meters. Raúl Fernández, with a Trackhouse Aprilia, crossed the finish line in third, followed by his teammate, Ai Ogura. The top five group also included Jorge Martín, from Aprilia.
Brad Binder, from KTM, completed the race in sixth place, while Joan Mir, with a Honda, was seventh at the end of the 13 laps of competition. Fabio Di Giannantonio, with a VR46 Ducati, finished the Sprint in eighth position, with Francesco Bagnaia, from Ducati, in ninth, closing the points zone. Luca Marini, from Honda, was tenth.
The Sprint in Buriram marked the debut of Diogo Moreira in MotoGP. The first Brazilian in the premier class since 2006 started from 15th position with the LCR Honda and managed to advance to tenth place, but lost performance and crossed the finish line in 13th position, 11s970 behind the winner of this Saturday’s race.
MotoGP will have the Thailand GP held this Sunday (1), with the start at 5 am.
Check out how the race went
The Sprint in Buriram began with Marc Márquez taking the lead in the opening meters, overtaking Marco Bezzecchi. The two even exchanged overtakes on the first lap, but the current champion finished the first lap in front. Starting from 15th position, Diogo Moreira advanced four places to take 11th place.
Bezzecchi retook the lead at the start of the second lap, but crashed, abandoning the race with the Aprilia. Márquez returned to the lead, but began to duel with Pedro Acosta, promoted to second place after the Italian’s fall, followed by Raúl Fernández. Moreira remained strong and jumped to tenth position with the LCR Honda.
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Jorge Martín began attacking Fernández for third position on the third lap. Further back, Toprak Razgatlioglu, World Superbike champion, appeared in a modest 15th place. Moreira began to lose performance and fell to 13th place at the start of the fifth lap of the race, after being overtaken by Álex Márquez.
Marc Márquez remained under pressure from Acosta, who was not yet looking for the overtake. The two were already opening a gap to Fernández, while Fabio Di Giannantonio jumped to ninth position after leaving Luca Marini behind. At the end of the seventh lap, Acosta attacked Márquez, managed to overtake, but was countered by the current world champion.
Fifth-placed Ai Ogura went on the attack against Martín on the ninth lap, attempting the overtake on the following lap, without success. A few corners later, the Japanese rider managed to overtake the Spaniard. At the front, Acosta once again sought the overtake at turn 12 of the Thai circuit, but again saw Márquez retake the first position.
Acosta continued attacking Márquez, but without maintaining the position. Razgatlioglu crashed with three laps remaining, leaving the race. On the penultimate lap, Acosta finally completed the overtake on Márquez, taking the lead of the Sprint. Meters later, the two touched and the KTM rider ran off the track, falling to second. Thus, Fernández closed in on the two.
The incident between Márquez and Acosta was investigated by the stewards, who penalized the world champion to yield one position. Thus, Acosta won, followed by Márquez, Fernández, Ogura, and Martín. Moreira completed the race in 13th place.
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