Marquez goes 100 and more as MotoGP screams around Hungary

Round eight of 2026 MotoGP pushed the limits of physics at the demanding Balaton Park circuit as Monster Energy delivered more thrills trackside with an all-action FMX show.

The fans in Hungary watched Grand Prix motorcycles howl around the flat, 17-corner Balaton layout but then turned their gaze to the sky as some of the gnarliest tricksters on the continent – like Julien Vantstippen, Andre Villa and Andreu Lacondeguy bent their bikes into different kinds of shapes.
 

Beyond the play and the style there was the serious matter of a second Grand Prix in a week to deal with. Seven days after MotoGP and the Monster Energy-backed factory Aprilia team dominated the classification and shattered the top-speed record at Mugello in Italy (368.6kmph, almost 230mph), Balaton was a vastly different prospect. The 4.1km layout is one of the slowest and twistiest on the slate, with an at least three chicanes to deal with. Precision and passing were two tough considerations.

2026 was the second visit by MotoGP to the track that only opened in 2023. Once the field had adapted to the turn-and-burn of the course, it was world champ Marc Marquez – on the Ducati Lenovo GP26 – that shone. The Catalan is still recovering from recent corrective shoulder surgery and a fractured right foot but the anticlockwise spin of Balaton was right up his alley.

Marc showed some of the authority that led to victory at the same site in 2025 by searing clear to win the Saturday Sprint. Marquez had tempered expectation in the build-up to the weekend but a slow speed crash in qualification on Saturday led to an inspired lap record only minutes later – with scuffed leathers and scratched bike carbon – to claim Pole Position. From P1 Marc only looked at empty track from Turn 1 onwards for 13 laps.

Sunday promised 13 more circulations for the Grand Prix. An engaging duel between Marc and Pedro Acosta transpired. The pair traded paint and grazed elbows through a succession of corners and a three-lap blast of action until Marquez assumed P1 and then wrestled the race into submission. The 1.3 second difference at the finish meant MM93 was able to toast his 100th career victory and become only the third rider in history to reach the ton.
 

Further adrift, Francesco Bagnaia had a lonely but consistent race in 3rd for his third rostrum appearance on the bounce. 

“I lost two places off the start and the mess there…but gained two back into Turn 2. Marc had more pace today, and understood it wasn’t my fight,” the Italian said. ‘I did not have enough grip to fight with them…but it was enough for 3rd and to maintain the gap.” 

Central Europe will get their fill of MotoGP in the coming weeks: up next is the Grand Prix of Czechia at Brno and round ten quickly follows with a trek north to the historic TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.