Franco Morbidelli's verdict on safety at Balaton Park circuit

VR46 Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli is expecting “an interesting weekend” at the Hungarian MotoGP.

Hungary returns to the MotoGP calendar for the first time since 1993 this weekend as Balaton Park makes its debut on the grand prix schedule.

The circuit, which hosted World Superbike at the end of July, has met mixed reviews from riders.

All of Ducati’s MotoGP riders rode Panigale V4s at the track during the summer break, and Ducati Lenovo Team’s pairing of Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia had differing opinions on the circuit when speaking at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Marquez was more positive about the track than Bagnaia, and Franco Morbidelli held a similar opinion to the Spaniard when he spoke about Balaton Park on Thursday at the Red Bull Ring.

“It's a beautiful circuit,” The VR46 Racing Team rider said, as reported by Spanish Motorsport.com.

“It's very narrow, as we all know, but very technical.

“It will be an interesting weekend.

“We'll have to see what tyres they will bring and how the MotoGP will adapt, it's a track of a kind that we've never tackled before.

“Perhaps so is the first sector of Sachsenring.

“As for safety, there should be no problems.”

Morbidelli heads to Balaton Park off the back of a difficult weekend in Austria where he was only 11th in the grand prix and 14th in the Sprint. He sits fifth in the standings, 34 points behind Marco Bezzecchi who was on the podium in third at Spielberg.

When WorldSBK visited Balaton Park in July, weather conditions were mostly dry but with some rain on Sunday morning. Toprak Razgatlioglu won all three races.

The weather for this weekend looks dry for the most part in Balaton with temperatures expected to be in the low-20s. There is a possibility of rain on Friday morning.