There was a clear divide between Pedro Acosta and the other KTMs during the 2026 Thai MotoGP season opener.
The young Spaniard celebrated his first Sprint victory on the Saturday, also KTM’s first win since 2023, then backed it up with second place to Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi in the grand prix.
But the Spaniard’s pace was out of reach for the other RC16 riders.
Factory team-mate Brad Binder was best of the rest, finishing sixth in the Sprint and seventh in the grand prix, 11.820s behind Acosta on Sunday.
Tech3’s Enea Bastianini also scored points with 17th in the Sprint and 12th in the grand prix.
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Left at the back of the KTM quartet was Bastianini’s team-mate Maverick Vinales.
Vinales finished 19th in the Sprint (+21.445s) and 16th in the grand prix (+36.545s), citing a chronic lack of front grip.
KTM lap times during the 2026 Thai MotoGP vs Aprilia race winner Marco Bezzecchi.
© Peter McLaren
“We tried many different things, but at the end the summary is the same. We miss a lot of front grip, so I’m not able to turn in the corners, the front just goes wide and I’m very slow in the mid-corner,” said the former Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia race winner.
“I missed three times, Turn 2. Two times, the last corner. Doing exactly the same braking points. It’s really weird, I don’t know what to say. But two laps, braking at the same place, once I nearly arrived at the gravel, the other I stopped perfectly.
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“At least we have a clear answer, which is we don’t have front grip. Especially on the edge. As soon as I lean, I don’t have grip.”
“Worse and worse”
“In the test, I felt a little bit better. For me, every day of the race weekend was getting worse and worse. I don’t know if it’s because the track gained grip and the rear was pushing more and more the front.
Vinales, who carried KTM’s hopes in the early stages of last season, confirmed that Acosta is strong in the very area where he is struggling.
“I can see that clearly [Acosta] is producing much more grip in the front,” he said.
“I don’t know, maybe his position on the bike or whatever. But he could make more grip in the front tyre, so it seems that’s his strength right now.”
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Vinales leaves the opening round without scoring a grand prix point for the first time in his world championship career, dating back to the 125cc class in 2011.
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