Marco Bezzecchi
MotoGP goes to Balaton Park for the first Hungarian Grand Prix since 1992 at the end of August, so all six Ducati riders enjoyed a private test at the new circuit on Tuesday.
Hungary has not featured on the MotoGP calendar for the last 32 years, but the country will return on August 22-24 with Balaton Park making its debut. Mick Doohan and Eddie Lawson won the only previous editions of the Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring in 1990 and in 1992.
Balaton Park will offer Marc Marquez a 21st different track to win at, as well, having won on 20 different circuits so far in his premier class career. The 32-year-old has already won at 21 world championship tracks, but he has not yet won at the Autodromo do Estoril in MotoGP.
Marquez will likely be the favourite to win the first Hungarian GP at Balaton Park, as the six-time champion has dominated MotoGP since joining Ducati in the 2025 season. He sits atop the standings by 120 points over his Gresini star brother Alex Marquez after only 12 rounds.
Francesco Bagnaia set the pace to Marc Marquez during Ducati’s private Balaton Park test
Marquez has also won eight of the first 12 Grands Prix, won 11 Sprint Races and taken seven pole positions since joining Francesco Bagnaia in the factory Ducati line-up. Yet the Cervera-born icon did not set the pace amid Ducati’s private test session at Balaton Park on Tuesday.
According to Motorsport.com, Marquez managed a 1:41.5 on a Ducati Panigale V4 S Pro, but his lap was slower than Bagnaia’s 1:41.468. The Borgo Panigale natives took their race-ready street bike for their riders to learn Balaton Park before the cut-off set out by MotoGP’s rules.
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MotoGP riders cannot test on a race circuit during the 15 days before an event. So, Alex and Marc Marquez, Bagnaia, Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer and VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio, as well as test rider Michele Pirro, took Ducati Panigale V4 S Pros out.
Marquez also shared a video on YouTube from Ducati’s private test at Balaton Park, showing the 70-time premier class Grand Prix winner completing a lap of the Hungarian GP track. His dashboard also showed lap times of 1:42.99 and 1:42.49, but they were not his fastest runs.
Marc Marquez’s best Balaton Park lap was 3s slower than Toprak Razgatlioglu’s World Superbike Superpole time
MotoGP bikes will undoubtedly shatter Marquez’s 1:41 lap time from Ducati’s private test at Balaton Park on Tuesday when the series holds the first Hungarian GP since 1992 at the end of August. World Superbike riders even posted fastest times during their recent visit in July.
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BMW star Toprak Razgatlioglu, who will move to MotoGP in 2026 with Pramac, set the pace throughout the WSBK round at Balaton Park last month. The 28-year-old was fastest in FP1 and Superpole, along with penning the quickest laps in Race 1, Superpole Race and Race 2.
Razgatlioglu set the pace at Balaton Park in FP1 – the most comparable session to Marquez’s time on a Panigale V4 S Pro, on which Ducati’s WSBK bike is derived – with a 1:39.743 on his BMW M1000RR. He set a 1:38.357 in Superpole, 1:39.732 in Race 1 and 1:39.384 in Race 2.
Yamaha signed Razgatlioglu to a two-year works contract to join Pramac in 2026, and might see him join MotoGP as a three-time World Superbikes champion thanks in part to his treble at Balaton Park. Razgatlioglu leads Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega by 26 points with four rounds left.
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