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MotoGP riders have weighed in on the incident between Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta that decided the outcome of the Thailand Grand Prix sprint.
The race-long battle between Marquez and Acosta boiled down to the penultimate lap of the race, when Marquez made a divebomb on his KTM rival into Turn 12 to snatch the lead.
The stewards immediately reviewed the incident and asked him to drop a position towards the end of the final lap, handing Acosta his first victory of any kind in MotoGP.
After the incident, Acosta said that he didn’t expect Marquez to be penalised, while the factory Ducati rider lashed out at the timing of the penalty, as it left him with little chance to regain position.
Factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo stressed that while Marquez did miss the apex and force Acosta wide, he did not exceed the track limits.
“I can understand the penalty. But also, Marc was still inside of the track; it was borderline,” said the 2021 champion.
“I think it is a block pass, for sure. For me, it was really clean. Then I also think about where he ended up on the track. It is 50-50. It depends on which side you look at.
“It was a clean pass, but also he was a bit out of the line, but he was still on the track.”
AGGRESSIVE MODE TO THE MAX 🔥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) February 28, 2026
This was the move that handed @marcmarquez93 a drop 1 position penalty, giving @37_pedroacosta the #TissotSprint win 🤯#ThaiGP 🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/UDBP2T1lfE
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez had a grandstand seat to the incident, as he was directly running behind Marquez and Acosta while they duelled for victory.
Fernandez offered his views on why Marquez ran wide into the right-hander, and felt the penalty was unnecessary.
“I don't like to enter in these [conversations], but this is MotoGP,” he said. “They had a lot of respect. You have one problem with this [modern MotoGP] bike, that is if you are on a wheelie moment, you cannot change direction.
"If you see the action between Marc and Pedro well, when Marc touched Pedro it was because he was on the wheelie moment and he couldn't change the direction.
“But anyway, I don’t really agree with these penalties, because this is the beautiful thing of motorsport.
“If you want to keep the show, if you want to show that MotoGP is the best sport in the world, you need to keep in these patterns.”
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio was eliminated from the podium fight after a separate run-in with Gresini rider Alex Marquez in the opening part of the race.
The Italian stressed that contact between riders is part of MotoGP, and it is important to let them race closely with each other.
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“This is my point of view on racing [in general] and not the race incident [between Marquez and Acosta],” he said. “We must punch each other, we must smash fairing one to the other. We must give elbows, on track, in between white lines - and thinking about the safety of the other rider with the limits.
“So, whatever happens outside the track, you are putting another rider in a sort of danger. I'm not talking about the specific moment. About today, I want to trust there is direction, that they have a constant way of judging [incidents].”
Pramac rider Jack Miller had previously lashed out at stewards for penalising him for his collision with Gresini rival Fermin Aldeguer at Valencia in 2025.
Asked for his views on the incident between Marquez and Acosta, he said: “You know my stance on that from last year in Valencia was quite clear,” he said. “When somebody continues to let brakes off around the outside, rather than doing what the logical thing would be, it would be to give space and undercut like what we've seen Marc [Marquez] do here with [Andrea Dovizioso], or Dovi do to Marc many a times, and continue to try and go around the outside, eventually the track is going to run out.”
Marquez's former Honda team-mate Joan Mir added: "If Marc's manoeuvre is always penalised from now on, fine. What I don't like is the inconsistency. I understand it, because after the contact, the other rider went off the track."
Photos from Thailand GP - Saturday
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Steve Wobser / Getty Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Steve Wobser / Getty Images
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
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Aprilia bike, Trackhouse Racing
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Enea Bastianini, Red Bull KTM Tech 3
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Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
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Diogo Moreira, Team LCR Honda
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Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
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Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team
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Luca Marini, Honda HRC
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Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team
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Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Steve Wobser / Getty Images
Diogo Moreira, Team LCR Honda
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Diogo Moreira, Team LCR Honda
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Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team, Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team, Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
Qian Jun / MB Media / Getty Images
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pramac Racing
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Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
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Luca Marini, Honda HRC
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
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Race start
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Johann Zarco, Team LCR Honda
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Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Joan Mir, Honda HRC
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Qian Jun / MB Media via Getty Images
Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
Steve Wobser / Getty Images
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
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Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Qian Jun / MB Media via Getty Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Steve Wobser / Getty Images
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Qian Jun / MB Media via Getty Images
Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
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Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
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