Mat Oxley is ‘more and more’ impressed by zero-win MotoGP rider after what he saw at Balaton Park

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Marc Marquez may have continued his dominance with Ducati in the Sprint Race at the 2025 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix, but one rider stunned Mat Oxley at Balaton Park.

Saturday was once again the Marquez show, as the Spaniard sealed his 13th Sprint win from the first 14 rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season. Ducati also saw Marquez get his eighth pole position of 2025 at Balaton Park, to potentially set him up to clinch his 10th double this year.

Balaton Park was not a happy hunting ground for the 32-year-old’s teammate, however, with Francesco Bagnaia unable to advance from Q1 at the Hungarian GP. The Italian even finished the Balaton Park Sprint down in a miserable P13, and hit the finish 14.891s behind Marquez.

Mat Oxley thinks Luca Marini has been ‘stronger and stronger’ since his crash at Suzuka

VR46 riders Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli joined Marquez on the podium for the Balaton Park Sprint Race. Luca Marini, Fermin Aldeguer, Joan Mir, Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez and Jorge Martin completed the top nine for the Sprint points at the Hungarian GP.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Luca Marini from his net worth to half-brother

Marini of Honda P4 taking in the Balaton Park Sprint also represents the 28-year-old’s best Sprint result in 29 rounds, since the Italian secured third in the 2023 Qatar Sprint with VR46. It is also just the second time that Marini has scored points in a Sprint during the 2025 term.

Seeing Marini finish the Balaton Park Sprint just 1.295s behind the podium places impressed Oxley. It also convinced him that the Honda star has taken his performances to another level since Marini’s huge crash in May’s Suzuka 8 Hours test, when he sustained a pneumothorax.

Oxley wrote on X after the Balaton Park Sprint Race: “Marini impresses me more and more, and more. He’s just got stronger and stronger since his massive Suzuka shunt.”

Luca Marini has benefitted from factors beyond his control to register improved results

Marini had to miss MotoGP’s visits to Aragon, Mugello and Assen owing to the injuries that he sustained at Suzuka this May. He returned at the Sachsenring for round 11 in July, where Marini came sixth in the attritional German Grand Prix for his best finish with Honda so far.

But while Oxley thinks Marini has been “stronger and stronger” since returning, the Italian’s average Grand Prix finish from the first seven rounds of P10.8 has only improved to P10.3 in the three since his return. His average Sprint result has also only moved from P12.2 to P11.7.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Honda from the MotoGP team’s riders to leadership

Honda have also only seen a marginal improvement with Marini’s qualifying results since his return, having moved his average from P13.4 to P13.2. Additionally, Marini benefitted in the Balaton Park Sprint from his rivals’ first lap woes that Yamaha ace Fabio Quartararo caused.

Marini pounced at the first corner after Quartararo pushed KTM Tech3’s Enea Bastianini out of the way after misjudging his braking on the opening lap. Aprilia ace Bezzecchi also had to take avoiding action, which also made factory KTM rider Pedro Acosta sit up on the outside.

Without Quartararo’s bowling ball mistake to start the Balaton Park Sprint Race, then Honda likely would not have seen Marini get P4 for his best Sprint result this year. Marini qualifying in P9 may still have led to his second Sprint points this term after his P8 in America in March.

Similarly, Marini only qualified P15 at the Sachsenring and finished the Sprint Race there in P16. But the Urbino native, who has never won a MotoGP race of any type, benefited from the spate of retirements in the German GP to secure P6 among the 10 riders who finished.