KTM rider Pedro Acosta has criticised Alex Marquez after the Gresini Ducati rider took out both Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio on the first lap of the Motegi sprint on Saturday.
The incident brought a swift end to another promising day for Acosta, who had started the sprint on the front row after scoring his first grand prix win in Austria last month.
The stewards agreed that the crash was Marquez’s fault, and have issued with a double long lap penalty in tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Acosta said Marquez’s attempt to make progress at turn 3 was optimistic at that point in the race, and also robbed him of a chance to close the points gap to Marco Bezzecchi, who lies third in the championship.
“Racing is like this, but it’s true that it was an early move,” said Acosta. “Quite early for trying to get a podium, you know.
“We had the opportunity to try to make a podium. After seeing the pace that Marc was showing, maybe a victory was [not realistic]. But anyway, it was a good day for a podium.
“I think it was a good day to catch points back from Marco. And in three corners we lost everything for this, yeah.”
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Acosta and Alex Marquez have a history of finding each other on track. At Assen last year, the pair locked handlebars, resulting in an injury for Marquez. And two races ago at Misano, Marquez gave Acosta the finger as the pair battled in the San Marino GP.
It was also Acosta into whom Marquez ran in his horror crash at the Catalan GP in May – although that incident was purely down to a mechanical failure on the KTM.
Di Giannantonio, who limped into the media centre after the race as a result of being hit in the incident, was also unimpressed with Marquez but unwilling to be drawn into comment regarding his 2027 KTM team-mate.
“Ask Alex,” he said when asked what happened in the incident. When told that Marquez was not coming to speak to the press following the sprint, a sarcastic Di Giannantonio simply said, “Clearly…”
Though he did not face up to the media, Marquez sent out a statement in which he accepted responsibility and the punishment.
“A bad day – the kind where you want to move on but also learn from the experience,” read the test. “I made a mistake at Turn 3 while trying to overtake on the opening lap. Unfortunately, I crashed and took out two other riders, which is the part that bothers me the most.
“That’s racing, but it hurts when something like this happens. We have to keep going and learn from it. I’ve got a double long-lap penalty for tomorrow, and it’s fully justified. Tomorrow, we’ll try to give it our all – it will be a new day.”
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