Rising MotoGP star Pedro Acosta believes Marc Marquez tried to overtake him “like no one was there” after his early exit from Saturday’s Barcelona Grand Prix sprint race.
Acosta had started the race in sixth position but quickly moved up to fourth behind the Ducati GP24s of Enea Bastianini, Francesco Bagnaia, and Jorge Martin.
However, as they approached Turn 3, Acosta was unexpectedly hit by Marc Marquez from Gresini Racing, causing damage to his GasGas-branded KTM RC16.
Due to the impact, Acosta was forced to retire from the race, while Marquez managed to finish in seventh place and earn three championship points.
In his post-race comments, Acosta expressed his disappointment with Marquez’s move, highlighting that he was ahead of him before the collision.
Acosta stated, “I was in front. I didn’t see anyone until Marc hit me. I was full on the right [of the track], [on the] inside.”
“He went in like no one was there. I will not say that it was his fault or not, but it was the third corner, it was not necessary to go like this.”
While Marquez didn’t fully accept responsibility for the incident, he acknowledged that he should have avoided contact with Acosta.
He compared the incident to a previous collision between Acosta and his Tech3 teammate Augusto Fernandez in Friday practice.
“I am always honest in these situations and the touch was a racing incident, but if anyone could have avoided it it was me, he couldn’t see me,” Marquez explained.
“We met and he didn’t see anything, what happened to Augusto Fernandez yesterday [in practice], [it was] the same.”
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont and German Garcia Casanova
