Marco Bezzecchi
Pol Espargaro is a big fan of Pedro Acosta and was “very happy” to see the KTM star stretch his run of podium results with P2 in the 2025 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix.
Balaton Park welcomed MotoGP for the first time last week for the first Hungarian GP since 1992. The new circuit was not an entirely happy hunting ground for Acosta, who crashed in qualifying and saw his bike fly towards the camera operator outside the high-speed Turn 8.
Acosta bounced back from his crash to qualify in P7 for the Hungarian GP with a best lap of 1:37.099. But Acosta was an unfortunate victim of Yamaha rival Fabio Quartararo’s bowling ball crash to start the Balaton Park Sprint Race, as he eventually finished down in only P17.
Yet the Hungarian GP brought Acosta some delight as he finished the main race in P2, albeit 4.314 seconds behind Ducati pilot Marc Marquez. The 21-year-old stayed out of the first-lap trouble to run P4, before picking off VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.
How KTM rider Pedro Acosta handled criticism at Balaton Park ‘surprises’ Pol Espargaro
Acosta’s P2 in the Hungarian GP also further strengthens his position as the top KTM rider in the 2025 standings with 164 points, for fifth in the championship after 14/22 rounds. It even followed his P3 in the Czech GP, plus his P2 in the Brno Sprint and P3 in the Sprint in Austria.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Pedro Acosta from net worth to girlfriend
Yet KTM test rider Espargaro could not help but notice the criticism that Acosta faced for his crash during qualifying at Balaton Park. But what surprised the 34-year-old was how Acosta handled the criticism for a crash which was easy while pushing on a bike that is not the best.
“I’m very, very happy,” Espargaro said, via quotes by Motosan. “I’m very happy because he’s a young rider who makes mistakes, like we all have. But he has a talent that is supernatural.
“He’s one of the [best] talents on the grid right now, and he’s not being able to shine as much as we would like. And that obviously leads to moments of frustration that make him make mistakes. And many times, a lot of the public turns on him for making mistakes.
“But he’s still a very young rider. We’re talking about him being only 21 years old, which is incredibly young. And how he handles it all, the criticism, despite the fact that he fights every weekend and has tremendous talent, surprises me.”
Pedro Acosta’s crashes hindered his hopes despite his P2 in the Hungarian Grand Prix
Acosta crashed during practice at Balaton Park last Friday, even before his high-speed off in qualifying for the Hungarian GP on Saturday. The KTM racer had shown he had the pace to possibly battle Marquez before the first of his falls, but his crash in qualifying proved costly.
Starting down the order meant Acosta was in the danger zone when Quartararo misjudged his braking point for Turn 1 and ruined the Sprint Race for KTM Tech3’s Enea Bastianini and Aprilia ace Bezzecchi. Acosta had to back out, otherwise Bezzecchi would have clipped him.
It would have been interesting to see how close Acosta would have been to Marquez’s pole position-winning lap time without his crashes at Balaton Park. After an early crash in Q2, he could only get within 0.581s of the Ducati rider after being fastest in Friday’s timed practice.
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