Last Sunday, Pedro Acosta secured ninth place in the Qatar GP of MotoGP, the first one he competed in the premier class. How does this result compare to the debuts of other great riders in history?
Right away, the young Spaniard did better than Valentino Rossi: the Italian debuted with a retirement. The same happened with Casey Stoner and Francesco Bagnaia. Also, Jorge Martín (15th) and Fabio Quartararo (16th) started worse than Acosta in the premier class.
The same cannot be said for riders like Max Biaggi (won on debut), Dani Pedrosa (2nd) and Marc Márquez (3rd), as well as – looking at the current field – Joan Mir (8th).
