Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati rider Marc Marquez believes Balaton Park’s lack of right-hand corners is hiding the extent he still needs to improve, after winning the Sprint Race from pole position.
Marquez has replaced KTM’s Pedro Acosta as the man to beat at Balaton Park, after enjoying a superb Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The odds had looked to be in Acosta’s favour this weekend, but he failed to reply to his Spanish compatriot in qualifying and in the Sprint.
Just one week on from returning from injury at the Italian Grand Prix, Marquez secured pole for the Hungarian GP by a mere 0.053s over Acosta at the end of Q2. A quick start then also saw Marquez beat Acosta to win the Balaton Park Sprint by 1.548s, and rarely face pressure.
Total domination by Marc Marquez in the Balaton Park Sprint 💪 But who was your rider of the race?
Marc Marquez knows he is far from back to his best in right-hand corners
Acosta conceded to Marquez’s superiority early in the Sprint at Balaton Park, as he saw after only four corners how much faster the Ducati star was in the shorter race. But Marquez feels any claims that he is already back to his best after a difficult start due to injury are incorrect.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez takes a dominant Balaton Park Sprint win over Pedro Acosta
Instead, Marquez thinks Balaton Park’s lack of right-hand corners masks the extent to which he still has to improve in those turns now that his shoulder is on the mend. The 33-year-old lost a lot of muscle in his right shoulder before he underwent another operation this May to remove two bent screws that had been pushing against a nerve and limited him in corners.
Marquez told DAZN: “The fact that you start to ride the bike and start to understand what it needs, how to ride it and push its limits. But it’s also true that you should never over-ride it. You try to go faster, and you end up going slower.
“For me, the key is to keep improving. This result does not mean my physical condition has changed in three days. But in three days, we’ve switched circuits, and there are only three right-hand corners where you can really push hard.
“I’ve still got a long way to go in that respect, but you have to enjoy all the good moments because that’s what gives you the fuel to keep pushing. Will I get back to [my] 2025 levels or not? I’ll give it a go, we’ll see. I’d rather fall at the final hurdle than not have tried at all.”
Does Marc Marquez already think Pedro Acosta will challenge him at Ducati in 2027? 👀
Marquez only realised that two of the screws in his shoulder from his Latarjet surgery from back in 2019 had bent as a result of his crash in the 2025 Indonesian Grand Prix at the start of 2026. The issue only emerged whenever he rode a MotoGP bike and it hindered his form.
So, Marquez secretly planned to have another surgery on his shoulder following the Catalan Grand Prix to remove the screws and a bone fragment. In the end, he brought that surgery forward as he needed an operation on his foot after his highside during the Le Mans Sprint.
Those two surgeries forced Marquez to sit out the French Grand Prix and Catalan GP, before returning and finishing seventh in the Italian GP after an early battle with Acosta around the gruelling Mugello circuit. But Balaton Park is a car park compared to Mugello, and Marquez has used the less challenging nature of the Hungarian GP venue to return to form this week.
So, despite taking pole and winning the Sprint in Hungary, Marquez will not get carried away feeling he is already back to his best or the levels seen last year. The Cervera native won 11 Grands Prix and 14 Sprint Races in 2025, before Marco Bezzecchi took him out at Mandalika.
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