Iberian Derby
Marc Marquez vs. Pedro Acosta. After the fair play that emerged in the statements following Saturday’s ‘direct clash’ in the Sprint between the two Spaniards – who don’t seem to love each other too much and who next year will almost certainly have to share the red box of the Ducati factory team – the sparks have flown. The first jab was thrown by the Shark, who proudly pointed out how it was he who left Buriram at the top of the championship standings, contrary to what the #93’s predictions had been. Not only that: the KTM rider had also rather quickly retracted that “it doesn’t seem to me that I won” uttered in the heat of the moment after the Sprint. “I won, and anyone who says otherwise has never seen a motorcycle race – Acosta later stated – in the end, I was the one who crossed the finish line first. Period. No one gave me anything.”
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The champion’s response
Marquez’s response came during an event organized by the Estrella Galicia brand with the other two 2025 World Championship winners, Diogo Moreira and José Antonio Rueda, also present. The seven-time premier class world champion, who this year is hunting for his tenth overall career title, clearly did not appreciate this ‘cockiness’ from Acosta and wanted to put his compatriot back in his place: “The Márquez of 2013 won the title in his first year in MotoGP,” he declared, responding to those who asked if he saw himself in the path Acosta is taking. A clear reference to the fact that so far Acosta has not won a single GP in the top class and is at the beginning of his third season.
Controversial episode
Finally, the reigning world champion also returned to the controversial penalty imposed on him on the last lap of the Buriram Sprint: “It’s about establishing a line and maintaining it in all situations – he said – it’s like a penalty in football: it can be interpreted one way or another. I am aware that it was a borderline action, I didn’t seek contact. If you go in, you have to force the ‘block pass’, otherwise what happened to Acosta when he tried and went wide would have happened to me. We riders adapt, it’s like when there were many sanctions in Moto2 and Moto3 and so maybe we will avoid it”, he concluded.
