2025 Hungarian MotoGP: Marc Marquez tops FP1 as Aprilia failure brings out red flags
Marc Marquez topped first Hungary MotoGP session in 33 years
Championship leader Marc Marquez topped MotoGP’s first Hungarian Grand Prix session in 33 years, which was red flagged for a spectacular Aprilia engine failure.
MotoGP returns to Hungary for the first time since 1992 at the new Balaton Park circuit, which hosted World Superbikes last month.
Having already completed a track day on street bikes at the circuit earlier in August, Marc Marquez was able to use that knowledge to top FP1 by 0.277s on his factory Ducati.
Marquez comes to Hungary on a run of six successive grands prix victories, but said on Thursday that he expected a closer challenge from rival manufacturers this weekend.
The 45-minute session was red-flagged with just over half an hour to go, after Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez suffered a spectacular engine failure heading into Turn 5.
The satellite RS-GP caught fire and dumped fluid on circuit, requiring a lengthy clean up operation before the session could be restarted.
That failure came just moments after the factory Aprilia of Jorge Martin blew an engine coming onto the pit straight.
VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio - who was part of that track day organised by the Italian manufacturer - led the way with a 1m39.156s at the point of the red flag.
But lap times continued to tumble through to the chequered flag, with Marc Marquez ending FP1 with a 1m37.956s on a 22-lap-old medium rear tyre to go underneath the World Superbike circuit best of 1m38.357s.
He was trailed by Tech3 KTM stand-in Pol Espargaro, who is replacing the injured Maverick Vinales this weekend.
Espargaro is the only rider on the grid with MotoGP bike knowledge of the Balaton Park track and used a fresh medium rear at the end of FP1 to jump up to second with a 1m38.233s.
He headed KTM stablemate Pedro Acosta, who remained on old tyres to finish 0.570s from Marquez, while Luca Marini on a new medium was fourth on the Honda.
Marini had a new Honda chassis to test during FP1.
Alex Marquez was fifth on the Gresini Ducati ahead of Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and VR46’s Franco Morbidelli, who had crashes at Turn 1 and Turn 15.
Enea Bastianini was eighth on the sister Tech3 KTM from Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer - both on identical 1m38.848s, while Aprilia’s Jorge Martin completed the top 10 on a new medium rear.
Fabio Quartararo was the leading Yamaha, 1.057s off the pace in 11th, with Di Giannantonio dropping to 11th at the chequered flag.
Pecco Bagnaia was a low-key 15th on his factory Ducati as he spent the session trying radical suspension solutions on his GP25 in a bid to find front end confidence.
He, along with Di Giannantonio, also used the 355mm Brembo brake discs.
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