Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo has incurred a penalty for his actions at the start of the sprint race at new venue Balaton Park.
Quartararo steamed into Turn 1 at the start much faster than the riders around him, and eventually ended up forcing Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta wide and ramming into Tech3 KTM rider Enea Bastianini.
He crashed out on the spot as a result of the collision, while Bastianini carried on before exiting the race in a crash with Johann Zarco at Turn 9 - which Bastianini said was caused by a ride height device failure triggered by the Quartararo contact.
Fabio Quartararo's incident from more angles 👇 #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/gEBzJ8apQf
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 23, 2025
Bastianini also said that he had taken a painful hit to the back that could compromise the rest of his weekend - but neither he, nor other MotoGP riders came down too hard on Quartararo, feeling what happened at Turn 1 was the consequence of the layout and the track being unfamiliar to riders.
The exception was Acosta, who said: "I don’t understand how Fabio with all experience that he has made this big mistake - because it was not a slight one, it was a big one."
Quartararo, however, felt he had a valid excuse for what happened.
"For me, my braking point was quite okay, but also on the dirt[y side] on the right, bikes start to slide. Of course with Diggia closing I had to completely release the brake to not hit Diggia, but then I had another problem that I had many [others] in front. So yeah, it happens," he said.
"It was really dirty [there]. On the warm-up lap, I’m always [riding] last, and I saw Alex [Rins] that was also on the right [side] and the tyre was full of sand. It was pretty bad."
Quartararo said he had expected a Turn 1 mess. "I didn’t know it was going to be me, but I mean, just after the start you are arriving in third gear to a first gear corner.
"It's pretty small, the first corner, and I think even for Moto2 it’s small, so imagine for us."
And he said he "didn't know" whether he'd get a penalty - but "I hope no".
Those hopes went unanswered as the MotoGP stewards' panel felt Quartararo was guilty of "causing a dangerous situation" at Turn 1 and causing "adverse effect" for Bastianini.
A long-lap penalty was assessed for a first offence of this type, which is set to be costly in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday given how difficult riders how found overtaking to be at Balaton Park.
