Pedro Acosta has admitted he “should not” be at the top of the 2026 MotoGP championship at the moment, despite holding a seven-point lead ahead of round two this weekend in Brazil.

Acosta holds that lead over Marco Bezzecchi, who dominated the Sunday race at the opening MotoGP round in Thailand on 1 March. It was a crash in Saturday’s Sprint for Bezzecchi that allowed Acosta to take victory, and now hold the championship lead – something Acosta is perfectly aware of ahead of this weekend’s (20–22 March) Brazilian Grand Prix, where the Spaniard thinks he could be competitive again.

“Normally, we are quite fast at new tracks, but you never know,” Acosta told the pre-event press conference in Goiania.

“We have to see where we are in FP1 tomorrow and after that put a clear target.

“We know that we should not be leading the championship. 

“For this, we have to keep going with our target to always be in the top five and try to not to make the mistake I was normally making in the first part of last year, which was crashing a lot.

“Let's see what's going on in Brazil. Zero expectation at the moment.”

Acosta continued, though, admitting that it is “super-nice” to be able to look at the top of the standings and see his own name.

“As you can imagine, it's super nice to see yourself on top of the MotoGP standings, but like I say, it's not our target now,” he said.

“I have to keep working like I'm doing. 

“I was really happy about the race we did in Thailand, because I was not committing the mistakes that I normally made last year. 

“But we have to keep working like this and that's it.”

The 2025 mistakes he refers to were born of frustration at the situation he found himself in in terms of competitiveness, Acosta explained, but technical improvements – particularly in terms of tyre wear – this year have improved his and KTM’s prospects.

“Last year, in the first part of the season, I was angry, let's say. And I was quite negative,” he said.

“It's clear that we are able to survive more with the tyres during a race. And this is the first step to be competitive,” Acosta explained.

“After that, the bike is becoming more easy. Also, the team are working faster. And from Mattighofen, they push and go flat out all this winter.

“Maybe also the general situation of the [KTM] brand is better. I think it's a combination of many things.”