The short, flat and compact Balaton Park circuit ensured MotoGP’s return to Hungary for the first time since 1992 and Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Pol Espargaro emerged from the fourteenth Sprint of the season on Saturday with 10th position. Incidents determined the races of Pedro Acosta in 17th, Brad Binder in 18th and Enea Bastianini who did not reach the checkered flag.
MotoGP shifted from the history of the Red Bull Ring in Austria to the new ambition of Balaton Park in Hungary for the series’ long overdue return to the country. Round fourteen circulated the flat, low-speed and technical layout next to Lake Balaton and across fresh asphalt.
The Red Bull KTM quartet saw Pol Espargaro line-up for the second time this term as Maverick Viñales rehabs his left shoulder. The Spaniard had previously completed a private test at Balaton Park, therefore he was the only rider on the grid with prior knowledge of the layout on MotoGP machinery. Espargaro and Pedro Acosta were inside the top three after FP1 on Friday and then Acosta went to the top of the time sheets through Practice to sit comfortably in Q2 direct entry for Saturday. He was joined by Enea Bastianini and Espargaro while Binder went into Q1 with less than one second separating the first 17 riders.
Blue skies and breeze on Friday turned into even warmer temperatures for the second day of the Grand Prix. Brad tried to filter out of Q1 and, incredibly, tied on his lap-time for the final slot but had to settle for P13 on the grid. In Q2 Acosta crashed early and was then playing catch-up on his second bike; eventually taking the 7th quickest lap, half a second from Pole. Three places ahead was the vibrant Bastianini: P4 marking his highest quali of ‘25 and put the Italian at the tip of row two. Espargaro had a late fall and rested with P12.
The Sprint was chaotic. Bastianini was hit midway into the congested first turn. He then tried to regain ground and positions but misjudged his corner entry to Turn 9 due to minor machine damage and went down. Acosta was also a victim of the early carnage, and his attempts to grab Sprint points ended with a slide into the gravel at mid-race distance. Binder suffered contact in the formative stages which led to a brief pitstop for a new fairing. He rejoined the fray and made decent lap-times with an improved race set-up discovered in FP2. Espargaro had some clean air but was busy mid-pack and made it to the line with P10 after experimenting with some more components for future iterations of the KTM RC16.
MotoGP retains its habitual timetable in Hungary with Moto3 opening race day at 11.00, then Moto2 at 12.15 and the 26-lap MotoGP Grand Prix at 14.00 CEST.
Pol Espargaro, 12th in qualification, 10th in the Sprint: “It was not my best race. We tested some things on the bike that didn’t really go to plan and I was struggling more and more. I had a good position in the beginning, and I was blocking the others on the brakes but doing that you don’t flow and keep the speed. Tomorrow I’ll need to follow my line more. Anyway, we took some information and tomorrow we’ll go again.”
Pedro Acosta, 7th in qualification, 17th in the Sprint: “The biggest mistake of the weekend came in qualifying. I also lost the front forks that I really like for the rigidity of the bike. Ciao forks! P7 was a normal qualifying position this season and I was expecting something OK for the race. I was 4th or 5th into the first corner but then there was a mess: it is what it is. I have to accept it, and the mistakes, but I was not expecting that drama at the first corner. I tried everything to pass afterwards but it was hard to match the braking points. I was desperate because I felt I had potential. Tomorrow we go again.”
Brad Binder, 13th in qualification, 18th in the Sprint: “I spun off the line and lost some places but gained one or two back until we got to the final chicane of sector three. The whole group got congested and I wasn’t ready for it. I clipped my wing on the back of another bike. It wasn’t a massive issue but on the next lap the fairing split. I had to come in. After that I had really good pace! A real pity. Today was not my day. I figured out a few areas where we could improve so we’ll speak with the boys and get dialed-in for tomorrow.”
Enea Bastianini, 4th in qualification, DNF in the Sprint: “Not my expectation! I made a good start: this was something we’d worked on. Turn 1 made me lose a lot of positions and the bike was smashed. I tried to come back but in Turn 8 the brakes were damaged and it was impossible to stop in time for Turn 9. I’m so sorry to Johann for hitting his rear. I think I can be competitive tomorrow but I have some back pain at the moment, so we’ll have to see.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Not the races we expected and hoped for but the weekend started well and we continued our positive trend. It’s a new and different track but we maintained our line of work. Pedro’s crash did not help in the Quali but Enea was 4th, Brad felt some improvement – he did a really good job in the morning – and Pol was incredible again to be in Q2. The Turn 1 incident led to a disappointing race for Enea and Pedro, and Brad was caught up too. In any case there are decent signs for all three and it was important to get more laps here while Pol also rode well. Tomorrow is a another chance and we need to use it to the maximum while keeping in mind what happened on track today.”
