Six reasons Marc Marquez conquered Balaton Park at the MotoGP Hungarian GP

The MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix, at first glance, was just another dominant weekend for championship leader Marc Marquez aboard the factory Ducati bike.

It may have been a new circuit on the calendar, but it was the same old story as the last seven race weekends since Aragon in June: wins for Marquez in both the sprint and grand prix, resulting in 37 points. 

But when one digs a little deeper, they inevitably find that no two Marquez triumphs are alike. It’s about specific key moments going his way.

Usually the credit for these is all his – but sometimes even he needs a little luck… 

Marquez loves a new circuit – especially one with lots of left-handers

One of Marquez’s many strengths is his ability to get up to speed ultra-fast in unknown or changing conditions. That also extends to new circuits. Before Balaton Park, he’d won three times at new MotoGP venues in his career – at Austin in 2013, Termas de Rio Hondo in 2014 and Buriram in 2018. 

Although he did fail to win on MotoGP’s first visits to Mandalika in 2022 and India a year later, his fitness and Honda’s competitiveness played a role in those events. And he missed Portimao’s first race in 2020 altogether due to injury.

Under normal circumstances, then, he has a pretty strong record when it comes to unknown venues. And Balaton Park, like Buriram and Austin, is an anti-clockwise circuit. That means it has more left-handers than right turns, which is perfect for Marc. He still freely admits that he prefers going left rather than right – a legacy of that big 2020 accident at Jerez. 

On top of that, the Ducati riders came into the weekend with a tiny edge on most of the field because they had tested on the circuit ahead of the event – albeit on Panigale machinery and in very different conditions.

Pedro Acosta’s qualifying crash

This may be clutching at straws… but Marquez leaves us no other option in 2025. So here goes: Pedro Acosta might have given him a run for his money at the Hungarian Grand Prix if he hadn’t stuffed up qualifying.

The factory KTM rider has been very happy with life since the Austrian team brought new aero parts to its home race a week ahead of Balaton. In Hungary, Acosta also had a new set of forks to play with. Thus armed, he appeared at one with the bike throughout practice – and seemed to be making a point of responding to Marquez at the top of the timesheets.

Most Marquez victories provide a little reminder that his success is not just down to a surfeit of speed – his experience and brain plays a role too. In Hungary, that moment came at the first corner of the grand prix on Sunday

Acosta edged the legend by six thousandths of a second on Friday afternoon, then lost out by eight thousandths on Saturday morning. A duel for pole seemed a genuine prospect – but Acosta may have been seduced by his own hype. He fell at high speed before he even had a lap in the books, destroying his bike as well as those forks, for which there were no spares. After that, he could only qualify seventh and would be no threat to Marquez in the races. 

Pole position signed, sealed and delivered

With Acosta out of the way, Marquez sauntered to pole position by three tenths of a second over Marco Bezzecchi. And on a track where overtaking looked like it was going to be tougher than usual, that was more important to Marc than usual. 

We had witnessed Marc win from the second row in 2025, as well as recover from bad starts such as that seen at Mugello. But the question mark around the issue of passing at Balaton Park was real. Marc himself had said on Thursday that it would be difficult, with a high chance of moves going awry.

Balaton Park made its MotoGP debut over the weekend and there were question marks over how easy it would be to overtake

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Marc knew pole was vital in Hungary, and had no problem delivering under that pressure. Indeed, he found such a strong flow when riding Balaton Park that he largely gave up his usual media modesty and admitted things had fallen into place rather easily.

Smart play at the start of the grand prix

Most Marquez victories provide a little reminder that his success is not just down to a surfeit of speed – his experience and brain plays a role too. In Hungary, that moment came at the first corner of the grand prix on Sunday.

Marquez started well from pole position, but so did Marco Bezzecchi alongside him. It was neck-and-neck between the Ducati and the Aprilia as they rushed up to the tight right-hander. But the Italian had the inside line.

Mindful of the havoc Fabio Quartararo had wrought on a similar trajectory in the Saturday sprint, Marquez kept a wary eye on Bezzecchi to his right. And then, as it became clear the Rimini man was going to try to outbrake him, Marc decided this battle wasn’t worth risking. 

“I didn’t know how much control Bezzecchi had and maybe another guy inside,” he said. “So I released the brakes and I turned late. I knew I would lose the position but I preferred not to take that risk.”

As it happened, Bezzecchi made the apex anyway. Marc probably could have toughed it out without getting skittled… but you never know.

Marquez knows perfectly when to take a risk, and when not to

Photo by: MotoGP

Sure, it’s easy to believe you’ll get the pass done later when you’re Marc Marquez in 2025. But would every rider have shown such risk management in the same situation, particularly on a track where many thought Turn 1 would be the first and last chance to pass?

A stroke of luck at Turn 2

Even Marc Marquez needs a little something from Father Fortune now and then. Coming into Turn 2 behind Bezzecchi, the 32-year-old appeared to lose his mind like a Moto3 rookie. It seemed he was trying to squeeze past the Aprilia on the inside kerb midway through the corner.

But, as the pair’s brief battle later in the race would remind us, this wasn’t what it looked like. Bezzecchi was significantly slower than Marc in the middle of Turn 2, and Marquez was caught out by that. His lurch to the inside of the British GP winner on the first lap was simply a case of trying not to run into the back of him.

Tyre wear wasn’t a huge issue in Hungary, particularly given the relatively cool temperatures for the time of year. Hence several riders were tempted to go with the soft rear for the long race on Sunday. Marc Marquez, however, wasn’t one of them

Marquez hit the side of the RS-GP rather than the back of it – arguably the better outcome of the two. Still, getting away with no more damage than dropping to fourth place certainly used up his luck quota for the race. 

The medium rear tyre

Tyre wear wasn’t a huge issue in Hungary, particularly given the relatively cool temperatures for the time of year. Hence, several riders were tempted to go with the soft rear for the long race on Sunday. Marc Marquez, however, wasn’t one of them. 

Given the way Marquez’s race panned out, in that he actually needed to work for a few laps to get back into the lead on lap 11, that proved a good choice. It meant he had rubber left to break his opposition even as half-distance approached. He blew them away with the fastest lap of the race on lap 12, then streaked to victory by over four seconds.

The soft rear was hardly a disastrous choice if you were a fast enough package, and Marc would probably have won with it anyway. But it’s worth noting that fellow podium finishers Acosta and Bezzecchi set their fastest tours on laps five and four respectively – earlier than any other finishers, in fact. It says much for their fundamental pace that they defeated medium-shod Jorge Martin and Luca Marini, who showed their best speed later in the race.

Next up is the Catalan Grand Prix on 5-7 September

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images