Pedro Acosta’s San Marino Grand Prix weekend looked to be heading in the wrong direction after a difficult Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, however, the KTM rider was back on the podium after his team made major overnight changes to his bike.
Acosta had struggled throughout the weekend with the front end of his KTM, particularly under braking. The problem was especially clear in Saturday’s sprint, where he could manage only sixth and lost more than half a second per lap to eventual winner Marc Marquez.
The Spaniard admitted he was frustrated because the issue was unlike anything he had experienced with KTM before.
“We were quite lost the whole weekend,” Acosta said. “Normally here I’m quite fast and I was struggling the whole weekend with the braking point with the front tyre.”
His frustration was visible after the sprint, with Acosta admitting he had become unusually angry because neither he nor the team could understand why the bike was behaving so differently.
That forced KTM into a major rethink overnight.
Source: Divebomb Motorsport
According to Acosta, the team effectively changed the bike completely ahead of Sunday's race. The adjustments immediately produced a much stronger machine.
Starting ninth, Acosta made a strong launch and moved up to fourth before Jorge Martin dropped back from the lead. That suddenly put the KTM rider within reach of the victory fight.
Acosta eventually closed to within a second of Marc and Alex Marquez, giving him a chance to challenge for the lead. A lock-up at Turn 7 ended his hopes of fighting the Marquez brothers, but he recovered to comfortably secure third place.
The result marked Acosta’s fifth podium of the 2026 season and gave KTM a much-needed boost after what had looked like a disappointing weekend.
“There were a lot of doubts on the grid about whether I could finish on the podium,” Acosta said.
“But the team did a good job last night. I don’t usually get very upset, but on Saturday I was, because we didn’t understand why certain things were happening.”
Acosta’s Misano podium was also significant because he felt the team had been moving backwards during the weekend. After finishing second at Aragon, he had expected to be competitive again but found himself struggling to even stop the KTM properly.
The overnight changes not only solved much of the braking problem, but gave Acosta the confidence to fight near the front again.
While Marc Marquez ultimately controlled the race to take victory, Acosta’s recovery provided one of the weekend’s biggest surprises. What had started with frustration and uncertainty ended with KTM finding the changes needed to put its leading rider back on the podium.
