Rookie’s reality check, leader’s new focus, Miller’s moving target: MotoGP Spain Insider’s Guide

Of the 11 Spanish riders set to step out in their own backyard for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, only four haven’t won MotoGP races. But it’s a home hero who’ll start just his fourth premier-class Grand Prix this Sunday who’s hogging all of the pre-race headlines – and it’s easy to see why.

With a pair of podiums in his first trio of races, Spanish 19-year-old Pedro Acosta is setting records with a premier-class beginning that’s the best in a generation, and among the standout starts we’ve ever seen. Third in his second race (Portugal) and second in his third (Austin), the man from Mazarron has until July’s German Grand Prix to become the youngest premier class winner in the sport’s 75-year history.

Acosta is already a winner at Jerez – coincidentally, in just his fourth race as a 16-year-old Moto3 rookie in 2021 from 13th on the grid, two races after he started from the pit lane and overtook 27 rivals – no misprint – to capture victory in Qatar.

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Taking on and beating locals like world championship leader Jorge Martin and six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez – let alone Italy’s reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia, chastened after his worst race in over a year in Texas last time out – should be a bridge too far for most rookies. Acosta, though, has already demonstrated he’s no normal debutant. Could he do the unthinkable?

Elsewhere, Jerez shapes up as a critical weekend for Australia’s Jack Miller, 12 months after his best Grand Prix weekend for KTM at the track where he sauntered to his second MotoGP win in 2021, while three extra wildcard riders to swell the grid and a typically charged atmosphere at one of the signature events of the season only thickens a potent brew.

Here’s your Insider’s Guide of what to watch from the south of Spain for round four of the MotoGP season.

SIMPLE THINGS KEEPING ACOSTA GROUNDED

Pedro Acosta was the undoubted centre of attention in the pre-event press conference at Jerez, where the GasGas rider has the chance to become the youngest rider ever to take three successive premier-class podiums.

A third top-three result on the bounce on Sunday will see the 19-year-old snap Marc Marquez’s 11-year-old record, the six-time MotoGP champion cementing his hat-trick of rostrums aged 20 years and 77 days at Jerez in 2013.

With so much attention so suddenly, Acosta could be forgiven for being distracted or getting ahead of himself, but says heading home to the coastal town of Mazarron between races has helped him put his early success into perspective.

“I’m back every week at home and I see the fishermen trying to take something for it [their work],” he said.

“I see how real life is and how people are working hard like that. For this, maintaining the feet on the ground [approach], when you see that, is quite normal.“

While history beckons for the Spaniard this weekend, Acosta feels the opening practice session for each race weekend – in many cases, his first on a MotoGP bike at each circuit – remains his greatest challenge.

“America was a good weekend for us overall, but we don’t really know how I’m going to ride here,” he said.

“We have many question-marks. For me, the Fridays are quite tough to understand the tyres, to understand the bike and to understand the track. It’s not the easiest thing for me at the moment.

“It’s true that now we are in a sweet moment, but it’s so easy to go well and then go bad. We need to be calm, keep the feet on the ground and not think about anything.”

MARTIN FOCUSED ON DOING HIS BEST WORK EARLY

With so much attention on compatriot Acosta, Jorge Martin has largely slipped under the radar in the lead-in to Jerez, which suits the media-shy Spaniard just fine.

Riding for Pramac Ducati, Martin leads the championship standings after three rounds where he’s yet to finish a Sprint or Grand Prix lower than fourth place, and revealed an off-season focus to prioritise the beginning of the 21-race calendar is paying dividends.

In 2023, Martin won more races than eventual world champion Pecco Bagnaia (13 to 11 across Sprints and Grands Prix), but was 62 points adrift of the Italian at the season’s mid-point, a gap that even his searing late-campaign pace couldn’t overhaul.

“I try to be more focused on the beginning of the season because it’s always a point where I struggle,” Martin said.

“I try to be more calm in some situations that I used to struggle or be nervous. Now, I try to relax a little bit and breathe.

“Last season, from the half-season to the end, I was really competitive, always in the front, and I think are continuing that consistency.”

Martin, who has just one podium (in Moto2 in 2020) from eight world championship starts at Jerez, admitted that a second win for the season on Sunday would mean more than 25 world championship points.

“To win here [would be] something else,” he said.

“I remember my dad and my mum were coming [here] before I was born, to watch Alex Criville and Mick Doohan. There are three or four tracks that are super special, but this is one of them.

“I remember I had a really competitive pace [in 2023] but I struggled to overtake and finished fourth, so I will work hard on this side to try to be faster and make the podium in both races.”

MILLER’S RIGHT PLACE FOR REDEMPTION

Jack Miller cut a forlorn figure after the most recent race in Austin, the usually talkative Australian’s post-race debrief delivered in staccato sound bites after plummeting from third in the early stages to 13th at the chequered flag, tyre woes seeing him sink like a stone in the latter stages of the 20-lap race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).

The KTM rider was back to his typically ebullient self on Thursday at Jerez, where he’s scored more points (82) than any other of the 23 circuits he’s raced on since his 2015 premier-class debut. On the podium twice at Jerez last year, where he finished third in both the Sprint race and Grand Prix proper, Miller felt the Austrian manufacturer had made major gains with its RC16 machine since last year’s Spanish Grand Prix, but pointed to the category’s “moving target” as the biggest hurdle to a repeat result.

“I’m looking for a little bit of redemption after the result in COTA. It wasn’t what we wanted, wasn’t what we deserved,” he said.

“It was nice to be back at the pointy end, at least for a little bit. We had good pace in America, which is something we didn’t have in the first two rounds of the season. In America I felt like I could run the pace and felt strong. I was kind of let down by something black and round pretty early on …”.

The race duration in the opening three rounds in Qatar, Portugal and Austin this season has been slashed as the bikes find ever-more speed – Bagnaia’s race-winning time in Doha was over two minutes faster than last year’s race at the Lusail circuit – while pole position times in qualifying have been between 0.8secs to 1sec faster in 2024.

“If you look at every track we’ve been to this year, we’re nearly a second [per lap] quicker,” Miller said.

“I have no doubt we’re all going to be quicker again here. MotoGP at the moment, it’s a constant moving target and it’s awesome to be a part of. We’ll try our best to throw it at the big boys.

“The bike is in good shape than it was 12 months ago, the engine brake is a lot better than it was, the [traction control] is a lot better, the chassis is better. We should have a good weekend.”

MORE RIDERS EQUALS MORE JEOPARDY

Next Monday’s post-race one-day test at Jerez has seen KTM, Honda and Aprilia each use one of their slots allocated for wildcard riders in Spain, with Dani Pedrosa (KTM), Stefan Bradl (Honda) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) increasing the field to 25 riders at a track where passing opportunities are rare, pack racing is a given and where the smallest of mistakes can have painful consequences.

There’s just three one-day tests scheduled after Grands Prix this season – the other two will be the Monday after the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello (June 3) and the day after the San Marino GP at Misano (September 9). Only Yamaha – of the four manufacturers permitted wildcards this season – are not fielding a third rider at Jerez, regulars Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins instead set to debut a brand-new chassis on Monday.

Of the three one-off riders, only Pedrosa figures to be a factor towards the front after the evergreen 38-year-old qualified and finished inside the top seven at Jerez last season, a track where he’s won twice and has a corner (Turn 6) named after him.

The swelled grid at Jerez – where the opening two right-hand turns to begin the lap are notorious accident hotspots – could produce similar mayhem to last year, where both the Sprint race and Grand Prix had to be red-flagged and restarted after first-lap crashes involving multiple riders at the tight, downhill Turn 2.