Pedro Acosta feels like he is getting closer and closer to his first victory in MotoGP after putting serious pressure on Jorge Martin during the Indonesian Grand Prix.

The Spanish rookie delivered what could be called his most impressive performance so far, as he battled his way up to second place early on and managed to close the gap on Martin. While his push for victory faded in the final stages of the race, Acosta still brought his KTM home in second place, just 1.4 seconds behind Martin, matching his best finish of the season.

This podium marked Acosta’s fourth of the season and was a much-needed comeback after his crashes in both Misano races. It also put him back ahead of his KTM teammate Brad Binder in their fight to be the top non-Ducati rider in the standings. With five more rounds left, Acosta is currently fifth in the championship.

“We’ve got to be happy because we’ve found some consistency inside the top five, which is not easy against Ducati,” Acosta reflected. "But we're getting closer and closer.”

Acosta admitted that, in the final stages of the race, he started to focus on bringing it home safely rather than risking it to catch up to Martin.

“Since Thursday, I felt this was a good track for us and KTM, so I’m happy because I needed to finish a race,” he said. “In Misano, we had the pace, I was competitive, but I crashed in both races. I tried to catch him today, but on lap 16 I had a moment that let him pull away again, so maybe second place is better than crashing out again.”

Shortly after crossing the line in second place, race control announced that Acosta was under investigation for a potential violation of MotoGP’s tyre pressure rules. However, the post-race investigation revealed that the issue was caused by a leak in the tyre rim, and the stewards cleared him of any wrongdoing.