Live coverage of the Sprint at the 2026 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix from Balaton Park. The Sprint is coming up this afternoon at 15:00 local time.
Pedro Acosta came into Saturday having been comfortably the fastest rider yesterday and the only rider to lap in the 1m36s bracket. His advantage over the field was over 0.4 seconds in Practice, enough to impress championship leader Marco Bezzecchi. Last year, his weekend unravelled in qualifying when he crashed at turn eight, but this time he qualified on the front row in second.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was the fastest rider behind Acosta and continued to assert himself as Ducati's strongest rider in 2026, at least while Marc Marquez is recovering his physical condition. Di Giannantonio and Marquez were among only three Ducati riders to finish Practice in the top-10, Marquez finishing seventh after topping FP1, to his surprise. The other was Fermin Aldeguer in fourth.
Both Marquez and Aldeguer start from the front row today, Marquez on pole and Aldeguer from third, while Di Giannantonio will start fourth.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi in sixth on the grid today. His chief title rival, Jorge Martin, will start from row three in eighth.
Francesco Bagnaia did not make the top-10 in Practice and had to come through Q1 this morning to qualify fifth. He is also concerned about the race start due to track grip in turn one.
Moto2 Q2 has just come to an end. Izan Guevara takes pole, while Manuel Gonzalez qualifies only fourth after topping all three practices. David Alonso was second yesterday afternoon and again this morning, but could only manage ninth in Q2.
MotoGP Sprint up next in just under 40 minutes.
Welcome back to live coverage of today's MotoGP action from Balaton Park. The Sprint is due to start in just under an hour at 15:00 local time.
Marc Marquez dashed Pedro Acosta’s hopes for Hungary MotoGP pole on Saturday morning
The shapes Marquez has this Ducati in at the moment are incredible, especially considering his physical condition.
He improves on his final lap again by 0.006s. It's pole for the reigning champion.
Acosta second, then Aldeguer completes the front row.
Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, and Bezzecchi on row two.
Fernandez, Martin, Marini row three.
Ogura, Moreira, Miller row four.
Acosta improves on his final lap but it's not enough for pole. Marquez going again.
Marquez and Di Giannantonio find improvements, Marquez for provisional pole and Di Giannantionio for third.
Aldeguer up to second now but 0.3s behind Acosta still.
Acosta improves again, he drops into the 1m36s with a 36.888s lap. Half-a-second clear now, ballistic pace.
Better lap was coming from Bezzecchi, but he blew the last chicane.
Marquez gets his second lap in and goes second, albeit 0.2s behind Acosta. That's a solid recovery, though, from Marquez - he was on the floor five minutes ago.
Bezzecchi is back to eighth now, with Fernandez up onto the front row in third.
Marquez has a time on the board but only P11 at the moment.
Acosta improves again to a 1m37.228s. Martin behind him goes second. Bezzecchi improves to fifth but losing massive time in the final two splits - he was equal with Acosta's time after sector two but 0.5s down at the line.
Acosta sets the early benchmark, 1m37.419s, so already faster than Bagnaia's Q1 best.
Marc Marquez has gone down a turn one, Di Giannantonio follows him in as well. Not a great start for the Ducati pair.
Q2 is underway at Balaton as pit lane re-opens.
Marini and Bagnaia join:
Bagnaia and Marini hang onto their Q2 spots at the end of Q1.
The order behind them:
Bagnaia now does displace Marini, 1m37.443s.
Marini still second for now, and there's yellow flags at turn two for a crash for Brad Binder.
Marini goes fastest. There are others coming behind him, but neither Lecuona nor Mir can better the Italian.
Everyone back in the pits now ahead of their second runs.
Bastianini and Mir holding those two Q2 spots at the moment.
Lecuona was briefly fastest but he's been move to third as Mir and then Bastianini go fastest, into the 1m37s now.
Bagnaia gets a lap in - P8 on a 1m38.4s.
Razgatlioglu with the early benchmark but a 1m38.0s won't be enough, you'd think.
Mir has also lost his first flyer, he's run on at turns nine and 10.