Winners and losers from MotoGP’s Hungarian Grand Prix

As MotoGP visited a new circuit with its own unique challenges, stringing together a great (or even terrible) weekend proved difficult for most riders and teams. Even Marc Marquez’s grand prix didn’t go entirely to plan, although he inevitably won it all the same and will travel back to Spain with his customary haul of 37 points. 

Scales were balanced everywhere you looked. Jack Miller, for example, had a rotten time on the track… but got his Pramac contract extended for 2026. The Balaton Park track also had a mixed report card, with a couple of safety concerns balanced out by racing that was better than many expected. 

Sifting through the ups and downs of MotoGP’s first trip to Hungary in 33 years, a few patterns nonetheless emerge. Here are some of the winners and losers from a busy weekend on the shores of Lake Balaton.     

Winner: Honda’s factory team 

At last, almost everything went to plan for the HRC crew. Granted, the twisting, turning challenge that is Balaton Park was a good fit for the RC213V. But it took a team effort to make the most of it. 

Luca Marini in particular seemed to find handy pace from the get-go as the riders ventured out on Friday to learn the circuit, finishing FP1 in fourth place. Later that day, both he and Joan Mir made it directly into Q2. They proceeded to line up ninth and 10th on the grid. Respectable but not remarkable. 

But staying out of trouble at the first corner of the sprint proved a smart move, as Marini came home fourth and Joan Mir sixth. For context, neither of them has previously had a top seven in a sprint all season. Marini backed that up with a fifth in the grand prix, the team’s best Sunday finish of the year. That race did, however, provide the only blot in Honda’s copybook: Mir rediscovering his crashing habit. 

Loser: LCR Honda 

Johann Zarco, Team LCR Honda

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

The weekend began with further evidence that the second LCR Honda seat – for which Diogo Moreira has signed up next year – appears to be under some sort of curse. Aleix Espargaro was due to have a second go at replacing the injured Somkiat Chantra in Hungary, but yet another cycling accident put paid to that plan. This meant that for the third time in four races, LCR was down to a one-rider team.  

Nor was Johann Zarco able to bring much cheer to Lucio Cecchinello’s team. The man who led the Honda fleet earlier in the year and even won a grand prix was nowhere to be seen in Hungary, reporting that he had “lost the flow on the bike”. 

The Frenchman missed Q2 for the first time since Italy. In between lapping not particularly quickly, he crashed on Friday afternoon and again (at high speed) in the grand prix. He was also punted out of the sprint on the first lap by an out-of-control Enea Bastianini. 

By the end of the weekend, Zarco thus had the dubious honour of being the first MotoGP rider to reach 20 falls (counting all sessions) for the season. 

Winner: VR46 Ducati 

Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team

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

Valentino Rossi’s squad features frequently in this list – but you never know if it’s going to be a winner or a loser. The latest episode in what Fabio Di Giannantonio described as “a rollercoaster” of a year, however, was a good one for the yellow Ducatis. 

Maybe it was the fact that we were back at a tight and twisty track, but the VR46 pair was competitive for the first time since the Sachsenring. Di Giannantonio snuck through Q1 to put his bike on the front row, with Franco Morbidelli lining up fifth. The duo then promptly collected medals in the sprint, behind the inevitable Marc Marquez. 

Then came some bad luck, as a mechanical gremlin struck Di Giannantonio’s bike on the way to the grid. He ended up starting the grand prix from the pitlane, which led to him only scoring one point. Morbidelli dropped back to sixth after running second early on, but it was good to see him stay out of trouble at the beginning of both races. 

Loser: Alex Marquez 

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

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

The younger Marquez attracted plenty of praise for his speed and consistency early in the season. But his recent distracted run of races continued with a particularly bad weekend in Hungary. 

The Gresini Ducati rider had an OK Friday, but was only 11th-fastest in qualifying. That was before the application of a three-place grid penalty on Sunday, which he earned for absent-mindedly impeding Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller in the Friday afternoon session. 

As in Austria, Alex Marquez did not appear to have an appetite for carving through the pack. Attrition helped him finish the sprint eighth, while a fall early in the grand prix contributed to a decidedly underwhelming 14th place. A paltry four points for the weekend was hardly worthy of a man still comfortably second in the world championship.  

Winner: Jorge Martin 

Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing

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

Jorge Martin was a tad quicker than Marco Bezzecchi on Friday, but both missed automatic Q2 qualification. The question was whether Bezzecchi would leave Aprilia’s controversial star signing behind for the rest of the weekend, as he had done in Austria. When Marco dominated Q1 and made it to the front row once again, while Jorge failed to progress, the answer appeared to be yes. 

But Martin had other ideas on Sunday. On the back of a steady ride to ninth in the sprint, he really got his head down in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Thumbing his nose at the notion that you couldn’t overtake at Balaton Park, he made it from 16th on the grid all the way to fourth at the flag. His fastest race lap was only four thousandths away from Bezzecchi’s – little wonder that Martin declared “I’m back” after the race. 

Loser: Francesco Bagnaia 

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

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

Just when you thought ‘Pecco’ had hit rock bottom, he earns himself yet another mention in this column by reaching an even lower low. The weekend began with him trying to backtrack on comments he had made after his Austrian disaster – but there was no sign of a fresh start out on track. Bagnaia wasn’t just slow, he appeared committed to trying out most of the escape roads on the circuit as his battles under braking continued. 

Without even a straight on which the Ducati could make up some time on the rest, Bagnaia never seemed a realistic threat to make it to Q2. His last chance, in Q1, saw the lost Italian only set one representative lap time – and it was nowhere near quick enough. 

The Turinese trundled to an unhappy 13th in the sprint before finding something like a sweet spot on race day. But feeling upbeat after finishing ninth, when you’re a double world champion, tells its own story.