Marco Bezzecchi
KTM rider Pedro Acosta took his fourth podium of the 2025 MotoGP season so far in the Malaysian Grand Prix with P2, as teammate Brad Binder only took P9 at Sepang.
Acosta now has an outside chance of challenging Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia and Ducati pilot Francesco Bagnaia for third place in the 2025 MotoGP riders’ championship. The Spaniard is fifth in the standings with two rounds remaining, trailing the Italian duo by 31 and 26 points.
The 21-year-old cut 13 and 26 points out of Bezzecchi and Bagnaia at the Malaysian GP last week, as Acosta finished the Sprint at Sepang in P3 before taking P2 in Sunday’s Grand Prix. Bagnaia retired from P3 in the Malaysian GP due to a puncture, while Bezzecchi bagged P11.
Binder is the second-highest-ranked KTM rider in the 2025 championship in only 12th place, having scored 133 points so far this year to Acosta’s 260 across 20 rounds. Tech3 duo Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales have scored 106 and 72 points in their first year on an RC16.
Pedro Acosta is the ‘only’ rider able to overcome KTM’s lack of a ‘working method’
Carlo Pernat now believes that Acosta is the “only” KTM rider capable of achieving frequent podium finishes on the RC16, as the Mazarron native can overcome his Austrian team’s lack of a “working method”. He finished 12.623s in front of Bastianini in P7 in the Malaysian GP.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Pedro Acosta from net worth to girlfriend
Bastianini was the second-best KTM rider in Sunday’s race, as the 27-year-old overcame his P19 qualifying result to finish in P7. Binder also only managed P9 as Acosta sealed P2 in the Malaysian GP on Sunday, with 16.256s separating the factory KTM teammates after 20 laps.
Pernat has told GPOne: “Acosta continues to keep afloat KTM, who are going slowly and probably have few resources and, above all, no working method. But he is a phenomenon. He is truly a phenomenon. He keeps this KTM on top, and he is the only one who can do it.”
Acosta impressed Dani Pedrosa with his tyre management in the Malaysian GP, as well, after the 2021 Moto3 and 2023 Moto2 champion struggled with the front tyre during the Sepang Sprint. Acosta told KTM to remove all of the devices on his bike so he could control the tyre.
Carlo Pernat identifies Enea Bastianini’s qualifying results as his key weakness at Tech3
Tech3 racer Bastianini also caught Pernat’s eye during Sunday’s Malaysian GP, as the Italian rose from the seventh row of the grid to secure his best result in five rounds with P7. But it also showed Pernat that while Bastianini is a great racer, he needs to improve in qualifying.
Pernat added: “Bastianini partly succeeds, but he doesn’t do qualifying, where he’s never in the first two rows.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Enea Bastianini from net worth to career stats
“When you start [on the] fourth and fifth [rows], and you have to come back from 19th to seventh, a beautiful race, but you have to be satisfied with these positions that aren’t the ones you’re suited to, because he really is a great talent.”
Bastianini has qualified on average in P16.1 through the 19 rounds that the Rimini native has contested since joining Tech3 for the 2025 MotoGP season. He has qualified as high as P4 in Hungary and P5 in Austria, but also just P21 in Argentina and Japan and P20 at four races.
Qualifying P4 at Balaton Park preceded Bastianini securing P3 in the Sprint and qualifying P5 at the Red Bull Ring preceded his P5 in the Austrian Grand Prix. Bastianini registered his first podium on a KTM with P3 in the Catalan Grand Prix after qualifying P9 in Barcelona, as well.
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