Ducati set to be challenged by three rival brands at ‘karting’ Hungary MotoGP track

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez reckons KTM, Aprilia and Honda “will not be far” from Ducati at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having been absent from the calendar since 1992, MotoGP returns to Hungary at the new Balaton Park circuit.

The tight and twisty layout has been raced on by World Superbikes already, while Ducati carried out a track day earlier this month for its riders on street bikes to get them familiarised with the circuit.

Marc Marquez comes to Hungary seeking a seventh consecutive win and is already pre-race favourite thanks to the track’s anticlockwise layout.

While he anticipates Ducati riders to have a “small advantage” to begin the weekend following their track day, he believes everyone will adapt quickly as the characteristics of Balaton Park are “similar” to the Red Bull Ring.

Therefore, he is anticipating Honda, Aprilia and KTM to carry on their strong form from last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

“Of course, Balaton circuit will be new for everybody,” he said.

“Ducati riders have a small advantage because Ducati riders did a test here.

“Ducati organised it super well and we had a chance to already try the race track. So, this will be a big help in FP1.

“Then from that point, let’s see. Coming from Austria I think it will be a bit easier for everybody, because it’s a bit similar: stop-and-go corners, very hard brake points.

“But definitely it’s a very different layout to what we are used to in the world championship. But in 22 races, we need to have different layouts.

“On the Panigale, in the first run especially it was difficult to take the reference.

“But then the technicality on this circuit is not the most difficult one. So, in the end it’s one line and I believe everybody with different manufacturers, different bikes, will be close.

“I think in this race track KTM, Aprilia and Honda will not be far.

“It’s a lot of stop-and-go corners. As I say, we don’t have a lot of different lines.

“Everybody will be with the same lines. And this, as when we ride in a karting [track] with the Panigale V2, all the lap times are super tight. So, I expect things will be super tight.”

The only rider set to take part this weekend who has experience of a MotoGP bike at Balaton Park is Tech3 KTM stand-in Pol Espargaro, who took part in a tyre test at the venue in June.