The first Super Saturday in Hungary is now officially in the books, after an eventful day at Balaton Park for the MotoGP™ squad. After reaching his best qualifying result of the season with a 4th place on the grid, Enea Bastianini sadly got an early end to his Tissot Sprint podium chances after being involved in two incidents on the opening lap, with the second one calling it an end for the Italian. He will have to serve a double long lap penalty on Sunday's race after his action was judged irresponsible. Teammate Pol Espargaro, fitting in for injured Maverick Viñales, took a solid 10th place in the sprint after starting from 12th on the grid.
Grand Prix of Hungary
QUALIFYING
Already qualified in Q2 after a brilliant top 5 in Friday’s Practice, Enea Bastianini continued to show his potential in the morning as he reached his best qualifying result of the season with a 4th place on the grid. Confidence was high after a solid FP2 to kick off Super Saturday at Balaton Park, with the number 23 wrapping the final free practice session with the 6th time. Then it was time for the first pole position at stake in Hungary. Bastianini began run 1 followed by teammate Pedro Acosta, who crashed early into a yellow flagged-session. Bastianini’s first lap was a 1’37.611, further improved to a 1’36.942 to move up to 2nd just 0.296 seconds off Marc Marquez, who had set the benchmark in 1’36.646. Pit box call, and then Bastia was waiting for Marquez’ wheel. However, the #93 did not quite agree with that, and cut his efforts to prevent the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider from benefiting from his wheel. Enea Bastianini did not improve his lap time, and his earlier 1’36.942 remained his fastest. That means second row in P4 for the Italian, his best starting position in KTM orange! Pol Espargaro had brilliantly managed to make the top 10 cut on Friday, a clear advantage to skip the tough Q1. The pace was positive in FP2 with Espargaro finishing less than 1 second to the leader. Unfortunately, the Spaniard crashed into his final Q2 run while he was provisionally in P9, and he could not rejoin the track and improve the lap times. He finished in P12, meaning he was to close the 4th row in both Sprint and main event.
TISSOT SPRINT
Enea Bastianini lined up in 4th then ahead of the Tissot Sprint, but unfortunately, his chances of doing something with it were going to be quickly turned to ashes. When lights went out, Enea took a solid start as he kept his left line to perfectly position himself on the outside of T1, but unfortunately a mistake of Fabio Quartataro at the braking on the inside of the first corner saw the Frenchman take away Bastianini with him. The Italian did not crash, but he found himself all the way back to P20, with everything needing to be done again. Sadly, it was then Enea’s turn to make a mistake, as he took down Frenchman number 2 Johann Zarco shortly after. It was a nasty crash between the two riders, with Enea returning to the garage a bit dizzy, needing medical examination, but luckily nothing major for the number 23. Unfortunately, Enea was handed a double long lap penalty to serve in Sunday's race. On the other side, Pol Espargaro took advantage of lap 1-chaos to gain 5 positions as he was in 7th after the crazy opening lap, behind Fermin Aldeguer. He was then overtaken on lap 3 by a Marco Bezzecchi providing the effort to comeback after also being pushed at the T1 incident. That was P8 for Espargaro, followed closely by a pressuring Alex Marquez. The number 44 defended his ground pretty well for a few laps on the number 73, but the Gresini rider could eventually go through in the left-right sequence of sector 3 of lap 7. Jorge Martin went through too in the following lap to grab the final point-scoring position, and that was P10 for Pol, a position he kept until the very end! Good job from Polyccio, who will look forward to more tomorrow, as we race in Hungary for the first time in 33 years, at 14:00 LT.
ENEA BASTIANINI: "Obviously, nothing turned out the way we wanted. I was very happy because we did a very good start from P4, which was an area we worked a lot to improve on this weekend. Unfortunately, Fabio (Quartararo) made a mistake at T1, hit me, and I lost many positions. I tried to come back, but unfortunately, it was impossible for me to brake at T9 after the device appeared broken, so I unfortunately crashed, and brought Johann down with me. I feel very sorry for him, but we could see very clearly in the data that I had a technical issue, so I am hoping that the race direction will understand. We had good potential, so let's hope tomorrow will be a better day."
POL ESPARAGARO: "I might have been a bit too optimistic to try following Marc (Marquez) in Q2 this morning, and I had a pretty big crash unfortunately, but luckily I was ok, and I want to say sorry to the team. They did a great job to have the bike ready for the sprint. P10 is fine, but I am not so happy with our rhythm overall. My riding was not so good, and we also had small issues on the bike, because we were testing a few things which did not go as planned. I tried to block the riders behind me, but it was very difficult to hold a good pace until the end. I hope tomorrow we can have a better pace!"
NICOLAS GOYON, Team Manager: "A lot of frustration from our side today unfortunately after such a great day on Friday as both our riders were in Q2, which had not happened to our team for a while. Enea did a solid job in qualifying this morning, and we knew he had a really good pace with great chances. He took a solid start to arrive at the first corner in 2nd position, but unfortunately, Quartararo's late braking destroyed his sprint. Enea was last, but then he later crashed in T9, taking down Zarco with him. The race direction gave him a double long lap penalty to complete tomorrow following that maneuver. Very frustrating penalty for us, but we know that he will give his best to do a solid race on Sunday, because he has the pace. Pol Espargaro did once again a really good sprint with a top 10, so we are confident that our package is working well at this track. We have a new chance tomorrow to prove that our bike is fast in Balaton, so let's take it!"
QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. Marc Marquez (SPA), Ducati Lenovo Team, 1'36.518
2. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA), Aprilia Racing, +0.290
3. Fabio Di Giannantonio (ITA), VR46 Racing Team, +0.354
4. Enea Bastianini (ITA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.424
12. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.104
TISSOT SPRINT RESULTS
1. Marc Marquez (SPA), Ducati Lenovo Team, 21'13.465
2. Fabio Di Giannantonio (ITA), VR46 Racing Team, +2.095
3. Franco Morbidelli (ITA), VR46 Racing Team, +3.595
10. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +12.905
DNF. Enea Bastianini (ITA), Red Bull KTM Tech3
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2025 - M. Marquez (SPA) - 1'36.518 - 151.9 km/h
Best Race Lap: New Track
Best Pole: 2025 - M. Marquez (SPA) - 1'36.518 - 151.9 km/h
Top Speed: 2025 - B. Binder (RSA) - 308.5 Km/h
