Marquez makes it a century in Hungary MotoGP

If there’s one thing MotoGP has been missing over the last 18 months, it’s a fierce rivalry between riders. And the Hungarian Grand Prix might just be the weekend when a prospective rivalry was forged between Marc Marquez (Lenovo Ducati) and Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM).

The pair were in a league of their own for the better part of the weekend, with Pedro Acosta topping practice sessions in the lead-up to qualifying. But it was Marc’s experience which not only saw him take pole position from Pedro Acosta and Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati), but also plant the seed of mind games when, in a post-qualifying interview that suggested Acosta had the pace to be the man to beat, Marc’s reply was simply: “The rider on pole is the man to beat.”

And boy, did those words ring true. His flag-to-flag victory in the Sprint denied fans the Marquez-versus-Acosta fireworks we were expecting when he beat his young compatriot to the line by 1.5sec, with world championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) completing the podium to increase his points lead over teammate Jorge Martin to 20 points.

But that was all she wrote for the usually dominant factory Aprilia squad, because when the lights went out to start the 26-lap Hungarian Grand Prix, a desperate lunge from the third row of the grid by Martin turned him into a wrecking ball, taking out teammate Bezzecchi, Aldeguer, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) – the top three in the world standings – earning himself a double long-lap penalty in Czechia in a fortnight’s time.

With Marc and Acosta clear of the chaos, it was Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati), Jack Miller (Prima Pramac Yamaha), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Yamaha) and Joan Mir (HRC) who formed the lucky but somewhat unlikely top seven, as Di Giannantonio remounted his crashed Ducati and continued.

It was Marc who nabbed the holeshot, just as he did in the Saturday Sprint, but keen to make the most of his soft rear tyre, Acosta grabbed the lead from the Ducati rider at Turn 5 on the second lap and followed it up with the fastest lap of the race to start lap 3. Another fastest lap from the hungry young Spaniard put a full second between himself and Marquez over the line the next time around. Bagnaia in third was another second behind the reigning world champ, with Miller in fourth holding off Luca Marini (HRC), Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda), Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM), Mir and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia).

Getting the most from that soft tyre, Acosta was 1.59 seconds clear of Marquez on lap 5 and perfectly placed to put his head down and go for his maiden premier-class victory. But that was the lap when Marc’s medium-compound rear tyre got up to working temperature and the point the gap between the two leaders began to tumble.

Marc responded with his own fastest lap of the race on lap six, and followed it up with two more to bring the gap down to seven-tenths to start lap nine. Acosta responded with his own best lap of the race to increase the gap by a tenth, but another impressive run of fastest laps from the reigning world champ had him all over the KTM rider’s rear wheel by lap 13.

By now it was a two-rider race. Bagnaia was some six seconds behind the leading pair, who also had a 5.8-second buffer back to Marini after the factory Honda rider finally found a way past Miller’s soft-rear-tyred Yamaha two laps earlier.

The first of the aggressive moves between the leading duo came at the Turns 9 and 10 chicane on the 14th time of asking when Marc pushed past before Acosta leaned on the GP26 and muscled his way back to the lead. Another lunge six corners later saw Marquez take the lead again before Acosta barged his way back through with more contact between the pair.

Then a block pass from Marquez had him briefly in the lead, but yet another aggressive lunge from the KTM rider ran the Ducati man wide. Acosta led over the line to start lap 15, made a mistake into Turn 1, but managed to keep Marquez behind him until the Turn 9 and 10 chicane. But this time it was a clean move from the experienced campaigner and the nine-time world champ put his head down and put seven-tenths of a second between himself and Acosta. And from there, the gap continued to grow.

Elsewhere, Mir joined the list of crashers on lap 15, while the long-lap penalty loop became busy with Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) serving a penalty, Bastianini serving one for unsafe riding earlier in the race and then another for taking a shortcut, before Quartararo was handed two for his own shortcuts through one of the track’s three chicanes.

Further back, Miller managed to hold off Ogura until a mistake at Turn 1 at the start of lap 17 allowed the Japanese rider through to fifth, while the ever-improving Moreira also found a way past the Aussie on lap 19 for sixth.

And just to rub salt into the wounds of Acosta, Marquez fired in yet another fastest lap of the race on lap 20 of 26 as the gap between the pair continued to increase. The remounted Di Giannantonio passed his teammate for 13th on the penultimate lap, going one better on the final lap when he took Alex Rins (Monster Yamaha) for 12th and four important world championship points on a day when his title rivals failed to score any.

But the man of the moment was Marc Marquez, who notched up both his and factory Ducati’s 100th grand prix win when a long look over his shoulder back to his rival saw him slow and eventually cross the line 1.3 seconds clear of Acosta, who set a new record of 13 podiums without a single race win.

Bagnaia hung on for a lonely third, and his third successive podium. Ogura found a way through on Marini on the penultimate lap for fourth place, with Marini fifth and Moreira sixth. Iker Lecuona (Gresini Ducati), deputising for the injured Alex Marquez, had a strong ride and passed Miller for seventh on the last lap. Bastianini was ninth ahead of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) in 10th.

It’s still Bezzecchi (180 points) from Martin (160) in the standings with Di Giannantonio (138) and Acosta (132) in third and fourth. Marquez’s perfect weekend sees him jump three places to fifth overall with 108 points. Miller’s strong showing sees him also jump three places to 20th overall with 11 points.

The series now heads to Czechia for Round 9 over 19–21 June.