Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pedro Acosta charged to 2nd place at the fourteenth round of 2025 MotoGP as the series made a sun-kissed return to Hungary. The second Grand Prix in successive weekends saw more competitive potential for the Red Bull KTM teams across the three days at Balaton Park, and the second time the KTM RC16 earned a podium trophy in three fixtures. The KTM GP Academy had a strong day in front of 32,000 spectators as Red Bull KTM Tech3‘s Valentin Perrone was only 0.1 of a second from victory in Moto3™.
The chicanes and tight curves of the two-year-old 4km Balaton Park circuit gave MotoGP a compact and tricky outing for overtaking. The first Hungarian Grand Prix in 33 years activated the flat course close to Lake Balaton and race day took place in hot, sunny and breezy conditions. Advanced qualification grid slots were crucial for podium prospects due to the narrow nature of the layout. The Red Bull KTM quartet started the 26-lap chase from P4 for Enea Bastianini, P7 for Pedro Acosta (who had set some of the fastest laps of the weekend in practice), P12 for Pol Espargaro and P13 for Brad Binder who missed out on Q2 by the slimmest of margins.
Bastianini’s progress was blocked by a double long lap penalty. The Italian was hit during the first corner of the Saturday Sprint but then a damaged rear ride height device meant he made contact with another rider on the same lap: the second incident was the cause of the sanction. Acosta made a decent getaway as did Bastianini but the Italian slid out of the race on the first lap. Pedro kept a top four berth as Binder and Espargaro hovered on the fringe of the top ten.
The race settled into a rhythm and Acosta was focused and effective to pass two rivals at close quarters and move up to 2nd. The young Spaniard had a close view of the lead at one stage but eased his pace in relative comfort to cross the line as runner-up. The performance meant another Prosecco bottle for Pedro – his second of 2025 after initially breaching the top three in Czechia – and his seventh career rostrum appearance in less than two years of MotoGP. Brad rallied to 7th to match his classification from the Austrian Grand Prix the previous Sunday, even though he was dealing with a small rear end issue. Pol battled with double world champion Francesco Bagnaia and defeated the Italian for a well-deserved 8th; another personal best of 2025.
MotoGP will now break for a week ahead of back-to-back races in Catalunya and San Marino. The stint will precede the overseas stage of the calendar and Grands Prix in Japan, Indonesia, Australia and Malaysia. The paddock will form-up again on September 5-7.
Pedro Acosta, 2nd and 5th in the championship standings:“The weekend started super-nice on Friday but was then becoming more and more difficult. Anyway, the team managed to bring me a bike to improve on what we made in the Sprint. I want to thank all of them because they were working until 2am to build two new bikes, for this I’m super proud of them. Thanks also to all of KTM and Red Bull and all the guys that are trying to make the KTM project even better.”
Brad Binder, 7th and 11th in the championship standings: “All things considered I think it was a pretty good race. I didn’t have the best of starts and had a small issue with the rear end locking, which stayed with me for the whole way. It was really difficult to manage that in the braking zones. Despite that the overall package was working incredibly well and I think we could have done much better today. Still, 7th was a strong result. The last three races have probably been the best of the season so far. Things have started to roll and feel like normal. I think we are in for a good second half of the year. Here, I was too slow on Friday and then we missed out on Q2 and starting further back at this place was rough.”
Pol Espargaro, 8th: “I had so much fun. Yesterday I struggled because I could not find my rhythm and I was over-riding but today I saw myself behind Brad and could match the lap-times and I’m happy about that. I know Maverick is working hard and I think Barcelona will be a good track to match his set-up and his style and a good place to come back after his injury. We all hope to see him back on the bike.”
Enea Bastianini, DNF and 15th in the championship standings: “From this weekend we only save our speed as a positive. Results are the important thing, but they were not coming. Today it was my mistake, yesterday was from another rider. I’m not happy about the double long lap penalty because what happened to me on the first corner yesterday was not correct and my bike was not ready to compete, which I could not know after only a few turns. Two long laps destroyed my race. Anyway, we hope to keep the speed for Barcelona.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “A great day for us, especially after yesterday’s disappointment. We felt we had the speed and potential all weekend but we didn’t really get the chance to show it on Saturday. Today, fortunately, the GP was calmer and less accidents in the beginning. Of course, Pedro’s podium was a highlight and proved our performance and our progress. Both Brad and Pol had solid races and decent finishes. Enea couldn’t show that he had possibilities for podium pace as well. We’re happy with the work we’re doing and now looking ahead to Barcelona and Misano; tracks that we feel will suit our package very well.”
