MotoGP Balaton Park Grand Prix Recap
- therookiereporters
- Aug 27
- 5 min read
The first Grand Prix at Balaton Park for MotoGP since 1992 has been nothing short of action-packed! Let’s recap the phenomenal race in Hungary.
Starting Grid for the Grand Prix
1 - Marc Marquez: 1:36.518s
2 - Marco Bezzecchi: +0.290s
3 - Fabio Di Giannantonio: +0.354s
4 - Enea Bastianini: +0.424s
5 - Franco Morbidelli: +0.513s
6 - Fabio Quartararo: +0.524s
7 - Pedro Acosta: +0.581s
8 - Fermin Aldeguer: +0.612s
9 - Luca Marini: +0.659s
10 - Joan Mir: +0.721s
11 - Pol Espargaro: +1.104s
12 - Brad Binder: +0.529s
13 - (Q1) Francesco Bagnaia:1:37.096s
14 - (Q1) Alex Marquez: +0.153s
15 - (Q1) Raul Fernandez: +0.252s
16 - (Q1) Jorge Martin: +0.282s
17 - (Q1) Jack Miller: -0.017s
18 - (Q1) Johann Zarco: +0.333s
19 - (Q1) Miguel Oliveira: +0.337s
20 - (Q1) Alex Rins: +0.342s
21 - (Q1) Ai Ogura: +0.819s
Balaton Park Grand Prix Recap
On Saturday, two riders were given penalties by FIM MotoGP Stewards. Fabio Quartararo was handed a Long Lap Penalty for causing a dangerous situation and a contact involving rider #23. The other rider was Enea Bastianini, who got a Double Long Lap Penalty for riding in an irresponsible manner, causing a crash involving #5.
Before the lights had even gone out, Fabio Di Giannantonio came into the pits to switch to his spare VR46 team bike due to some technical issues that the team hadn’t been able to correct before the warm-up lap. This meant that Fabio, who was starting 3rd, then started last from the pit lane. After lights out, we had a nail-biting lap 1, witnessing Marc Marquez lose out to Marco Bezzecchi into turn one after a slower start. This led to minimal contact in turn 2 that forced the Spaniard wide and into 3rd place ahead of Pedro.
A few corners later, there was a terrifying moment for Enea Bastianini, as he lost his bike in the chicane, sliding across the track and onto the racing line briefly. He is considered lucky to have walked away from the incident, as he was extremely close to colliding with another rider. Luca Marini surprisingly managed to take avoiding action, marginally missing Enea.
We had a great battle between Marquez and Bezzecchi in the first half of the race, which saw Marc catching Marco quickly after overtaking Morbidelli. Marquez made some risky attempts before dropping back by a few tenths. It was clear he spent his time analysing where in the lap he could capitalise before taking the lead into turn 1 on lap 11, assisted by the straight line speed of the factory Ducati. Afterwards, Marc Marquez had a quiet race and calmly took his 10th victory of the season and 7th victory in a row. In addition, Marc Marquez won the Rider of the Race for Balaton Park. Pedro Acosta, a rider known to come alive in the late stages of the Grand Prix, clinched the silver medal and his second Grand Prix podium of the 2025 season. Bezzechi managed to round out the podium in third, an unexpectedly successful day for Aprilia Racing, whose riders had been complaining about the bike at the start of the weekend.
Hungary also provided a strong performance from Jorge Martin, who started 16th on the grid and managed to climb up the order to place fourth. His comeback from his pre-season crash at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia has been a roller coaster after his incident on lap 14 during the Qatar Grand Prix with Fabio Di Giannantonio, causing serious injuries (a collapsed lung and 11 broken ribs, which sent him to the hospital), leading to his absence in MotoGP till the Brno Grand Prix.
Another rider who surprised the MotoGP World was Luca Marini. He began ninth on the grid and managed to achieve a fifth-place finish, his first top 5 finish as a Honda Rider. He unfortunately had a heavy crash during a testing session for the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in May. His injuries included a dislocated hip, damage to the ligaments in his left knee, fractures in the sternum, fractures to his left clavicle and a collapsed lung.
Across the grid, some riders had a more difficult day out on track, with the likes of Francesco Bagnaia finishing ninth and Quartararo serving his Long Lap Penalty and finishing tenth. In addition, Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer were two riders to succumb to the gravel, but they both managed to continue their race and reach the chequered flag. Others weren’t so lucky with Joan Mir, Jack Miller, Johann Zarco, and Raul Fernandez all crashing and retiring from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Balaton Park Grand Prix Results
1 - Marc Marquez: 42:37.681s
2 - Pedro Acosta: +4.314s
3 - Marco Bezzecchi: +7.488s
4 - Jorge Martin: +11.069s
5 - Luca Marini: +11.904s
6 - Franco Modbidelli: +12.608s
7 - Brad Binder: +12.902s
8 - Pol Espargaro: +14.015s
9 - Francesco Bagnaia: +14.854s
10 - Fabio Quartararo: +15.473s
11 - Ai Ogura: +18.112s
12 - Miguel Oliveira: +19.021s
13 - Alex Rins: +22.861s
14 - Alex Marquaz: +25.938s
15 - Fabio Di Giannantonio: +26.262s
16 - Fermin Aldeguer: +55.239s
NOT CLASSIFIED
Johann Zarco: 6
Raul Fernandez: 14
Jack Miller: 10
Enea Bastianini: 25
Joan Mir: 22
2025 Championship Standings
1 - Marc Marquez: 455 points
2 - Alex Marquez: 280 points
3 - Francesco Bagnaia: 228 points
4 - Marco Bezzecchi: 197 points
5 - Pedro Acosta: 164 points
6 - Franco Morbidelli: 161 points
7 - Fabio Di Giannantonio: 154 points
8 - Fermin Aldeguer: 126 points
9 - Johann Zarco: 114 points
10 - Fabio Quartararo: 109 points
11 - Brad Binder: 91 points
12 - Raul Fernandez: 73 points
13 - Luca Marini: 72 points
14 - Maverick Vinales: 69 points
15 - Enea Bastianini: 63 points
16 - Ai Ogura: 58 points
17 - Jack Miller; 52 points
18 - Joan Mir: 46 points
19 - Alex Rins: 45 points
20 - Jorge Martin: 23 points
21 - Pol Espargaro: 16 points
22 - Takaaki Nakagami: 10 points
23 - Miguel Oliveira: 10 points
24 - Lorenzo Savadori: 8 points
25 - Augusto Fernandez: 6 points
26 - Somkiat Chantra: 1 point
27 - Aleix Espargaro: 0 points
Looking ahead to Catalonia
As we take a week break from racing action before heading to Barcelona, we expect to see Marc Marquez continue his dominance with the Ducati Lenovo Team. His brother, Alex Marquez, needs to have some strong points finishes to drag out the title fight and with 37 points total up for grabs, can he capitalise and take a win from Marc? As seen this weekend and in Austria, Bezzecchi has proven to be the rider to challenge Marc Marquez the most. Will we see him getting his elbows out in Spain with the 6-time MotoGP Champion? We will have to wait and see what unfolds on the 7th of September.
Article written by Alice Seager ©️Alice Seager 2025
