#AmericasGP - April 14, 2024

Yep, you are reading that right. MotoGP™ rookie Pedro Acosta has done it again, and even better this time as the #31 took his second podium in the premier class on Sunday, claiming P2, meaning that he became the youngest rider to score two podiums in a row in MotoGP™. What a rider. His teammate Augusto Fernandez finished in the points after a hard race at the end of which he claimed P14.

Lining up again on the front row in second, all eyes were on the rookie after he narrowly missed out his first Tissot Sprint podium on Saturday after he took P4. When the lights went out at 14:00 local time (GMT-5), it was a perfect start for the rookie who took the lead to exit the tricky turn 1 in first ahead of Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia. He came in hot with a strong lap already in 2’03.578 to hold his lead, an advantage that he kept during the first three laps, although he had to defend himself against the attacks of Martin. The rookie was leading a MotoGP™ race on his third round in the class, can you believe that? Eventually, Martin was getting more and more impatient and saw a gap to go through Acosta, and Marc Marquez took the opportunity to go by too, and then it was Bagnaia’s turn, leaving Acosta in 4th with Jack Miller in his wheel. While Martin started to make the gap at the front, Acosta chased Marquez, and a little mistake from the #93 gave Acosta the opportunity to go back to the provisional front three, and the next lap he was second. At the back, poleman and Tissot Sprint winner was coming back big time after a tricky start, and he had already made it to P4 with 12 laps to go. Acosta was reducing his gap with race leader Martin who appeared to have slowed things down a little bit, and he did not wait too long to make a move on the 2023 runner up with a stunning move to take the lead again! Marc Marquez found himself behind too, and overtook the rookie, but the eight time-World Champion lost the front and was out! Drama! Soon Viñales was close to Acosta's wheel, he made a first move on the rookie, which was defended brilliantly, but the #12 went at it again a few turns later and eventually Acosta had to let him go through. With six laps to go, hot laps were coming in, with Acosta clocking a 2’02.966, which ended third fastest lap of the race. Things stabilised themselves a bit as everyone tried to calm things down a bit to avoid last minute mistakes. Vinales was still leading the charges, and Pedro Acosta started to reduce his gap with him in the final three laps, but Maverick held it and gave an extra push to secure himself the win, while Pedro Acosta finished second. It is the second podium in a row for the young rookie, who now stands fourth in the championship. Bravo!

On the other hand, it was a rather tough race for Augusto Fernandez. Starting from P18, he dropped two positions within the first turns, but he regained them quickly to exit lap 1 in his original grid position. Soon enough, he was behind Miguel Oliveira who he overtook, and then it was Raul Fernandez’ turn, which allowed Fernandez to find himself behind Brad Binder. A few crashes ahead of him gave him a bit more ground and he was able to go up in the rankings, to eventually finish in P14. Two points earned for the number 37 who will now focus on the next race in Jerez in two weeks!


Position: 2nd
Championship: 4th
Points: 54
"I had not enjoyed a race like this one in years, since Moto3! You can not imagine how much fun I had today on track, when I was overtaking riders, when Jorge Martin passed me and then I recovered the position, touching the other riders, etc. It was a super nice race until Maverick Vinales passed me, but he was a rocket today, I am super happy for him. Yesterday I was a bit disappointed with our tyres mistake, but in the end I am really happy that we made that mistake because we fixed it today. This morning in the warm up, we decided to go with medium, and then in the race, when I led, I was trying to manage my tyres, not to make a stupid mistake or anything crazy. I am also really happy to have been able to fight with the top guys like Marc Marquez, I am learning a lot from him and I enjoyed being with him until he crashed. I am super grateful to be with Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 because they believe in me so hard, but also the people around me and Pierer Mobility because they are giving everything to provide me with the best package possible.  It was a great weekend, thanks everyone."


Position: 14th
Championship: 16th
Points: 7
"It was a really tough race, we struggled a lot to maintain a good enough pace, so we have a lot to analyse after this round. Of course we scored points, but it was not good enough for us. Pedro Acosta did an unbelievable race, and his tyres choice was better than ours, so we need to study his data and try to help ourselves because he is doing an incredible job with the bike. The weekend was a bit better than the two first ones in general, I felt better during the sessions, but in the race, I could not hold the pace. Anyway, I am looking forward to going to Jerez which is a track that I know and enjoy a lot, and hopefully we will be able to improve ourselves. Then we will have an important test and I am counting on that one to make key improvements, maybe we can inspire ourselves from Pedro’s bike.


Team Manager
"What an unbelievable race from Pedro Acosta today! If I am being honest, we are starting to miss words to describe his performance, it is only the third weekend of the year and we already count two podiums and a front row start. We just lived an incredible weekend. After the sprint, he was a little bit disappointed, so today we decided to gamble a bit and try a different option on the rear tyre. I have to say that Pedro was really strong in his decision, and it shows the level of maturity he already has, so we are all admiring the human being and the great rider he is. P2 on the grid, P4 in the sprint, P2 in the main race. Apparently, these are the numbers when you work with Pedro Acosta, and it is amazing! With Augusto Fernandez, we decided to work in a different way this weekend as we tried to be a bit more conservative with the bike, and I would also like to encourage him to keep working in this way. Even if we did not see the benefits in the results, the weekend felt better, and two points are a good reward. Let’s keep working like this, and I am sure that it will pay off soon. Congratulations to the team for a great weekend, let’s pack and head to Jerez in two weeks as we begin our European tour.

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