Acosta furious after French GP incident: 'Nobody does that to me'

The young Murcian was quick throughout the weekend, riding beyond the limits of what his Red Bull Factory KTM was supposed to be capable of, eventually taking a P5 finish on Sunday. He spent the majority of the race in the podium positions until Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura made their way through the field, but it was his battle with VR46's Fabio Di Giannantonio which has particularly drawn the ire of "The Shark".

Di Giannantonio has been the standout Ducati rider so far this season, notching up podiums in Brazil and Jerez while generally finishing in the Top 4 consistently. By contrast, Acosta had a fiery start to the year after his epic sprint win in Thailand and two Sunday podiums so far, but has also found himself stuck in the midfield for several races, finishing only in P10 in Jerez. Nonetheless, Acosta has all but obliterated his KTM teammates already this season. He currently sits P4 in the championship with the next best KTM of Tech3's Enea Bastianini being in 10th overall.

Acosta fought valiantly throughout the race, and was very unlucky to be passed on the final corner of the last lap by the VR46 rider.

Speaking after the French Grand Prix, Acosta had the following to say about his battle with Di Giannantonio, and promised a payback will come Diggia's way further down the line:

"It was the best we could do, at most scraping fourth place which Di Giannantonio took from me, because I thought he was closer and I defended a bit more than necessary, and he got out fast."

"I'm also getting a bit tired of being a pushover. [...]I went a bit too defensive, I was a bit at fault thinking he was closer. I’ll remember it for the next race. No one passes me while staring."

The moment of the now infamous look-back, which Acosta percieved as disrespect, can be seen in this clip which was proudly shared by VR46 team: