Marquez takes another pole as Acosta falls

An expected head-to-head fight for pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix failed to materialise as Pedro Acosta crashed his factory KTM early in the session, leaving his Ducati counterpart Marc Marquez to claim honours.

The world championship leader will share the front row with Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati).

As in Austria a week earlier, Q1 featured numerous big names. They included ultimate Spielberg polesitter Bezzecchi, reigning world champion Jorge Martin, Di Giannantonio and struggling factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia. 

Bezzecchi dominated that session, was fastest on both the first and second runs, and went through to Q2 by a healthy margin of 0.247s. He could even afford to lose a lap time for taking a shortcut on his second run. 

The battle for the second spot in Q2 was much tighter. So tight, in fact, that two riders set exactly the same second-fastest lap time. KTM’s Brad Binder recorded this first, with Di Giannantonio matching it at the very end of the session. But it was the Italian who got the nod for Q2, by virtue of his second-best lap being quicker than the South African’s. 

Bagnaia was mostly at sea, setting only one representative lap time as he continued to battle his GP25. Having flirted with missing Q2 on previous occasions this season, Hungary saw that nightmare become a reality. 

The two graduates from Q1 took full advantage by taking second and third in the Q2 session that followed – but there was nothing they could do about Marquez. Marc’s first run would have been enough to take pole after he hit the ground running, but he improved at the end of the session just for good measure. 

The red bike’s margin over Bezzecchi – who led much of last week’s Austrian GP before Marquez passed him to win – at the end of qualifying was 0.290s. 

The gaps in the remainder of the top 10 were nowhere near as big. Mere hundredths kept KTM’s Enea Bastianini off the front row in fourth. VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli was a similar fraction behind, with Fabio Quartararo summoning up a lap good enough for sixth despite battling his factory Yamaha all weekend. 

Acosta, the one rider who had shown pace to match Marquez throughout practice, pushed too hard, too early. He lost it at the high-speed Turn 8 before he had even registered a lap time, and his factory KTM was a write-off after several cartwheels. 

The Spaniard made it back to the pits with plenty of time to grab the spare bike, but was unable to get up to speed on it and had to make do with the seventh-fastest time. 

Joining him on the third row will be fellow Murcian Fermin Aldeguer and factory Honda rider Luca Marini. The second works Honda of Joan Mir will start 10th, on the inside of row four. 

Joan Mir, Honda HRC

Photo by: MotoGP

After that, things get complicated. Alex Marquez was 11th-fastest after failing to get a good lap together aboard the Gresini Ducati. But he will suffer a three-place grid penalty for the grand prix on Sunday following a blocking incident in Practice. 

Pol Espargaro was slowest in Q2 despite flashes of promise throughout the practice sessions. Maverick Vinales’s injury replacement at Tech3 KTM suffered a fall just before the end of proceedings. As at Spielberg, then, the unassuming Bastianini once again led the Austrian manufacturer’s qualifying charge over much-hyped stablemates. 

With Jack Miller also joining Alex Marquez with a Sunday grid penalty, the lower half of the starting line-up will vary substantially between the qualifying timesheets and the grand prix – though not the sprint. But that will be little consolation to Bagnaia, who will start both races in the lower reaches. 

At least he will have his 2024 world championship rival Martin for company after the Spaniard also failed to make it through Q2. 

Hungarian Grand Prix – Q2 results