Sepang Sprint: Acosta stays on slicks as Viñales gambles on a bike swap
Rain hit parts of Sepang during the 10-lap Malaysian Sprint. Pedro Acosta won on slicks; Maverick Viñales swapped to his wet bike and finished 15th.
2 min readBy PitPin Desk
The Malaysian Grand Prix Sprint on Saturday was wet in some places and dry in others. Rain fell on several corners at Sepang from the first few laps of the 10-lap race, and the white flags came out early. That meant riders could pit and change to their second bike, set up for the wet.
The result
Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM) won in 20:04.098 on slick tyres. Marc Marquez (Ducati) was second, 0.578 s behind, and Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) third. It was round 19 of 22 and Acosta's second Sprint win of 2026, his first since the season opener in Thailand.
Acosta started from the front row after qualifying third. He spent six laps managing grip before taking the lead with three laps to go, then stayed on slicks and made no mistakes as the showers got heavier.
Pit or stay out
Maverick Viñales was 14th with three laps left. His wet-setting bike was ready, and he pitted for it in case the rain got heavy. KTM says the heavy rain only came on the cool-down lap. Viñales finished 15th, 1:42.843 behind the winner.
The riders who stayed out had to judge each corner separately. Brad Binder, seventh from 15th on the grid, said it was hard to know how much to push in Turns 4, 5 and 6, while the rest of the track was bone-dry. Acosta named Turn 4 and Turn 10 as the bad ones, and said it was tricky to know how hard it was raining. "I was quite focused with three laps to go in the rain and to not make any mistake like in Austria," he said.
Enea Bastianini, ninth, said he lost more time when rain started in the first and second sectors.
Aki Ajo, the KTM team manager, praised Acosta for keeping calm in those conditions.
The 20-lap Grand Prix was scheduled for 14:00 local time on Sunday.