Pedro Acosta of KTM dominated Friday afternoon's timed practice session at the Hungarian round of MotoGP. Acosta finished the session at Balaton Park approximately half a second ahead of second-placed Fabio di Giannantonio. The race, the eighth round of the season, marks Balaton Park's second appearance on the calendar; the track hosted Hungary's first MotoGP round since 1992 last year.
Marquez in the morning, Acosta in the afternoon.
In the first session of the day (FP1), world champion Marc Marquez topped the leaderboard. The Spaniard, still recovering from his injury, finished FP1 ahead of Raul Fernandez by 0.169 seconds; Pedro Acosta came in third. A noteworthy point for Turkish motorsport was the presence of Ai Ogura, Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu in the top ten of FP1.
The final order was determined in the afternoon session. Following Acosta, Di Giannantonio was second, Raul Fernandez third; Fermin Aldeguer and Ai Ogura completed the top five. Marco Bezzecchi was sixth, Marc Marquez seventh. Diogo Moreira (best Honda), Jorge Martin and Jack Miller (best Yamaha) completed the top ten.
Bagnaia suffers a Q1 shock.
One of the surprise names of the day was Pecco Bagnaia. The two-time MotoGP champion finished the day in 14th place after a lap affected by a major incident at the final chicane entry, and will have to go through Q1 on Saturday. At the back of the 22-bike lineup was LCR Honda's interim rider, Cal Crutchlow. Marquez is also among those who qualified directly for Q2.
The Aprilia duo are pulling ahead.
Following his victory at Mugello last week, Marco Bezzecchi maintains his lead, 17 points ahead of his teammate and title rival Jorge Martin. Fabio di Giannantonio is third, 39 points behind, while Pedro Acosta is fourth, 70 points behind. Marc Marquez, returning from injury, has climbed to eighth place. Marquez took pole position and won both races at Balaton last year, but he says he has lowered his expectations this year following shoulder surgery.