Acosta quickest in Hungary MotoGP practice, Bagnaia sinks to Q1
MotoGP

Acosta quickest in Hungary MotoGP practice, Bagnaia sinks to Q1

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
2 min read

Pedro Acosta led Marc Marquez by 0.006s in second Friday MotoGP practice at new venue Balaton Park, as Marquez's team-mate Pecco Bagnaia floundered all the way down in 14th.

Bagnaia, who is coming off a chastening Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, had been the quickest Ducati rider when its MotoGP roster went testing road bikes at Balaton, but looked all at sea here on Friday, his eventual absence from the top 10 coming as little surprise as he struggled with entry into the Turns 9-10 chicane and also in the final sector.

Saturday will mark the third time this year that Bagnaia has had to go through Q1. He had succeeded in progressing to Q2 on the two previous occasions.

Marquez and fellow Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer were the standouts early in this session, but it was Acosta who took the greatest profit of the soft rear tyre in late-session time attacks, posting a 1m37.061s.

Acosta then had a slow highside at Turn 2 while running behind Marquez, but was seemingly unhurt.


Advancing to Q2: Acosta, M Marquez, A Marquez, Aldeguer, Bastianini, Morbidelli, Mir, P Espargaro, Marini, Quartararo

Will contest Q1: Martin, Bezzecchi, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, Binder, Ogura, Miller, Oliveira, Fernandez, Zarco, Rins


Marquez had lost his quickest lap to a yellow flag, but improved further in the dying seconds, lapping just 0.006s off Acosta.

His brother Alex was third but faces an investigation for an incident in which Bagnaia came up on the younger Marquez's Gresini-run Ducati on the racing line as the latter was already explaining himself to Jack Miller, who had also felt impeded - with Alex arguing he himself had been held up by a rider a corner earlier.

Gresini team-mate Aldeguer was fourth, with Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli, Joan Mir and KTM tester Pol Espargaro completing the top eight.

Mir on the Honda was the only rider not on a KTM or Ducati in the top eight, and he will be joined in Q2 by works team-mate Luca Marini, who set the ninth-fastest time.

Fabio Quartararo looked like one of the slower riders out there early in the session, but gritted his teeth to a surprise Q2 laptime, denying Aprilia's Jorge Martin by 0.001s - with Martin's team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, one of the form men of the recent rounds, also missing out.

They will be two riders that Bagnaia will need to contend with tomorrow, but the Q1 roster also features another Ducati rider in VR46's Fabio Di Giannantonio, as well as the fourth-fastest KTM of Brad Binder and the LCR Honda of Johann Zarco, who crashed late in the session while on a Q2 push.

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