Francesco Bagnaia 13th: “Difficult day, difficult moment"

The tight, stop-and-go Balaton Park circuit continued to expose the braking and corner entry woes that have plagued Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP season.

The Ducati Lenovo rider qualified just 15th at the Hungarian MotoGP and crossed the Sprint finish line in 13th, despite accidents ahead for Fabio Quartararo, Pedro Acosta and Enea Bastianini.

Meanwhile, factory team-mate Marc Marquez extended his winning streak to 13 races in a row, taking the chequered flag 14 seconds clear of Bagnaia - with the other GP25 rider, VR46's Fabio di Giannantonio, in second place.

“It was a difficult day, it’s a difficult moment,” Bagnaia admitted on social media. “We are working to find a solution and I am sure we will find it, together, because we are a team.”

With little to lose from so far back on the grid, Bagnaia and Ducati opted for a radical set-up change in the Sprint.

“I knew that from 15th on the grid it would be difficult to put together a comeback, especially as this has generally been harder to do this year in the Sprint,” Bagnaia explained.

“In the end, we chose to make a significant change to the bike set-up and I think it could represent a good starting point.

“Aside from the first two to three laps, in which I had to adapt to the change, I was then able to brake a lot harder and this helped me a lot, even though I ended up struggling more in other areas.

“Tomorrow, in the warm-up, we’ll try to make another step in this direction. It’s going to be a long and challenging race.

“It has been a difficult period, but we need to keep believing as we know how high our potential is.”

Alex Marquez, Bagnaia’s rival for second in the world championship, also had a forgettable day but still extended his advantage over the Italian to 57 points with an eighth-place result.

The Gresini rider and Bagnaia will start Sunday’s race side-by-side after Alex was handed a three-place grid penalty for obstructing the Italian in Friday practice.