“I did not expect him to slow down so much and touched him but fortunately we both managed to stay on our bikes, it was a huge relief."
Marc Marquez’s remorseless march to a seventh world title continued on Sunday as he coasted to victory in the Hungarian MotoGP.
The 32-year-old Spanish Ducati rider recorded his seventh successive sprint race/MotoGP double as he beat compatriot Pedro Acosta on a KTM with Marco Bezzecchi riding an Aprilia third.
Almost as eye-catching as Marc Marquez’s performance — he is three off equalling his career best of 10 MotoGP victories in a row — was 2024 world champion Jorge Martin’s fourth place, from a lowly 17th on the grid.
His season has been ruined by injury — something Marquez knows all about having had a series of injuries — but back to full fitness he finally found some form.
Marquez holds a 175-point lead over his younger brother Alex Marquez, who finished 14th, with eight races remaining.
Marquez had a terrible start in what was the first Hungarian MotoGP since 1992 and almost went to ground when he clipped Bezzecchi on the second corner.
“I did not expect him to slow down so much and touched him but fortunately we both managed to stay on our bikes, it was a huge relief,” said Marquez.
“The first 10 laps was a real battle but once I took the lead I had an excellent rhythm.
“Aprilia are becoming more competitive but our bike is still out-performing them and I could not be happier.”
Marquez dropped to third while his Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, who had a disastrous qualifying session, surged from 15th to seventh.
Marc at least remained in contention but his younger brother Alex saw his already slender title hopes diminish yet further as he crashed on the first lap.
He remounted but dropped to 19th and last — Italian Enea Bastianini fared even worse, his race over before the end of the first lap.
He slid across the track, his rivals doing brilliantly to avoid hitting him, before he rose up and shook his fists in frustration back to the pits.
Marc Marquez moved into second, passing Franco Morbidelli, and was less than a second off Bezzecchi with 21 laps to go.
Two laps later he slipped past Bezzecchi but the Italian quickly reclaimed the lead.
It was a game of cat and mouse between the two for the following few laps before Marquez went past at the beginning of the 11th of the 26 laps.
“I am very happy with the overall result,” said Bezzecchi after securing his third successive podium finish.
“I was riding too nervously on Friday and making too many mistakes but qualifying on Saturday was a game changer.”
‘Managing my emotion’
Pedro Acosta had crept up on the leading two and was onto Bezzecchi’s shoulder at the halfway mark by which time Marquez was already a second clear of them.
Further down the field Bagnaia’s miserable campaign took another hit on the 14th lap.
The Italian, who has been a shadow of the rider that won two world titles (2022 and 2023) since Marquez joined the team this term, was penalised with a long lap penalty for going through a chicane.
Acosta meanwhile had moved into second and went on to equal his best previous performance.
“This is super nice!” he said.
“I want to thank the team because they worked till two in the morning on the bike.
“Also there were some hard conversations with me about my mistakes and managing my emotion. It looks like I listened to them!”
Bagnaia might be having a tough season but nothing compared to Martin, the man who succeeded him as champion.
The 27-year-old known as ‘The Martinator’ has missed 10 races this term because of injury but he shone on the sun-soaked circuit on his Aprilia.
Paolo Bonora, Aprilia’s racing team manager, said Martin had returned to the garage full of beans.
“He (Martin) showed good confidence with the bike,” Bonora told TNT Sport.
“When he came back to the garage he said ‘Fantastic! So easy to manage the bike and overtake the others’.”
