Rider Quotes From The Hungarian GP

Marc Márquez (P1) – “I was lucky not to crash after the coming together with Bezzecchi: I wasn’t expecting him to slow down that much at turn two and I ran into him. My mistake. I lost one position and from there my race had a new start: I stayed patient, knowing I had the medium tyre on my side. I got it up to the perfect temperature and then I started pushing. The tyre choice really made the difference, as this morning I realised that with the medium I was able to lap at the same pace as the others on the soft. I knew that as the race went on, I’d be able to keep the same rhythm.”

Pedro Acosta (P2) – “The weekend started super-nice on Friday but was then becoming more and more difficult. Anyway, the team managed to bring me a bike to improve on what we made in the Sprint. I want to thank all of them because they were working until 2am to build two new bikes, for this I’m super proud of them. Thanks also to all of KTM and Red Bull and all the guys that are trying to make the KTM project even better.”

Marco Bezzecchi (P3) – “Today’s race was anything but easy because I honestly didn’t expect the soft tyre to wear so much. However, at the same time, it was the only tyre I was able to stop well with on the braking sections, so I needed it. I am certain that I gave my all and, for this reason, I can’t help but to be pleased.”

Jorge Martin (P4) – “I learned a lot today and I continued to grow. Starting sixteenth was not an easy situation, but I had a clear starting strategy, especially for the first turns. After a few laps, I was already sixth and from there I just tried to maintain a good pace. The result was outstanding, especially for the team, who are truly happy and motivated. We took a huge step forward.”

Luca Marini (P5) – “It’s a great weekend, an incredible feeling to end the race today in fifth after chasing Martin and Morbidelli for all of the race. There were a couple of tricky moments during the race but we were able to recover from those. I am keeping my feet on the ground, but we are in a positive trend of improvements across all of Honda which is the key point. There have been a couple of races where we have also been strong when there is a lot of grip but there’s a lot of margin to improve. We have been trying many things these last two races, at two really unique tracks, now we need to focus on finding which are the best pieces overall. Barcelona will be another challenge with high top speed and different grip.”

Franco Morbidelli (P6) – “It was a difficult race, we expected a different performance from the soft tyre, and I tried to make it last for as long as I could, managing right from the start. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that, and I had less speed than the guys I was with. At the end, I made a good defence on my rival, but I had to drop one position. Anyway, overall, it has been a good weekend for the team, yesterday we got back to having an interesting speed, we got on the podium in the Sprint. Today, even if I didn’t have a good feeling, I was there, so we can be happy with this weekend.”

Brad Binder P7) – “All things considered I think it was a pretty good race. I didn’t have the best of starts and had a small issue with the rear end locking, which stayed with me for the whole way. It was really difficult to manage that in the braking zones. Despite that the overall package was working incredibly well and I think we could have done much better today. Still, 7th was a strong result. The last three races have probably been the best of the season so far. Things have started to roll and feel like normal. I think we are in for a good second half of the year. Here, I was too slow on Friday and then we missed out on Q2 and starting further back at this place was rough.”

Pol Espargaro (P8) – “I had so much fun. Yesterday I struggled because I could not find my rhythm and I was over-riding but today I saw myself behind Brad and could match the lap-times and I’m happy about that. I know Maverick is working hard and I think Barcelona will be a good track to match his set-up and his style and a good place to come back after his injury. We all hope to see him back on the bike.”

Francesco Bagnaia (P9) – “It went well. At the beginning it took me a little while to find the feeling, but then it kept improving lap after lap. In the final laps I tried to overtake Pol (Espargaró) after tailing him for so long, but I ended up missing the braking mark at turn five. This is the first time this season that I’ve felt better: obviously the result is not up to our expectations, but the goal of finding a solution has begun bearing some fruit. The step forward made across these three days was significant and I’m happy.”

Fabio Quartararo (P10) – “To be honest, I was not super confident at the start because of what happened yesterday, so I braked a bit too early this time. Then something else happened ahead of me on track, and I lost two more positions because of that. I was able to overtake Binder and Bagnaia in the first laps, but after the long-lap penalty the tyre started to drop and I lacked grip. I was pushing hard and was strong in braking, but I was not able to close the gap to Pecco.”

Miguel Oliveira (P12) – “I‘m sorry about the mistake on the penultimate lap that cost me 11th place. I knew Ogura was trying to catch me, so I started pushing hard to defend myself and not give him any chance. Unfortunately, at the braking zone into Turn 5 I ran wide, and he got past. A shame, but overall I‘m fairly satisfied with my race. I tried to stay very consistent, using the riders in front as my reference. After a few difficult races, I‘m back in the points, and on a track that, on paper, should have been tough for us, that gives me a boost.”

Alex Rins (P13) – “I was able to do 1’38-low and 1’38-mediums towards the end of the race but not at the start. This is an area that we need to work on, because I didn’t have a good feeling over the first nine laps, and I couldn’t follow Zarco or Ogura who were in front of me.”

Alex Marquez (P14) – “This hasn’t been our weekend and today, also due to the grid penalty, it turned out not to be our Sunday, either. I had a crash in the early stages and things went too uphill from there. We knew this track would have made our life difficult. Now we’ll try to reset and thing about Barcelona, a track that clearly suits my style better.” 

Fabio Di Giannantonio (P15) –  “Unfortunately, already on the formation lap the bike was lacking power, and the Ducati technicians tried to analyze what was going on. I had the same issue on the Warm-Up Lap, so I had to start from the pit lane with the second bike. It’s a shame, because even with the tyres we didn’t choose, we were still very fast and consistent. It’s a missed opportunity, but we keep our heads high. We had a great weekend, we did a good job, and we’re finally starting to understand this Desmosedici GP25. Yesterday we had a great qualifying and an amazing Sprint, it’s a pity about the race, but that’s racing. I’m proud of my team, they’re doing an excellent job. We have to be happy and take the positives.”

Fermin Aldeguer (P16) – “Such a shame, really. We were having a good race, but a mistake really affected our race outcome. There’s regret, as we had the pace to do really well so we’re leaving Hungary with less points than we would have deserved.”

Jack Miller (DNF) – “Got off to a decent start and settled in well but folded the front outta nowhere at T1. Picked it up, gave it a crack but went down again chasing. Pace was there which makes it sting more. Big sorry to the girls and boys at Pramac Racing. We’ll bounce back in Barcelona ”

Joan Mir (DNF) – “We need to check what happened in the race today because from the out lap, something from the rear of the bike was not feeling correct. Because of this, everything at the start was even more complicated for me which is a shame because we had a good opportunity today. The potential of the bike now is inside the top six or seven and Luca showed that to end a great weekend for him. I am disappointed today but overall it’s a positive weekend for us.”

 Enea Bastianini (DNF) – “From this weekend we only save our speed as a positive. Results are the important thing, but they were not coming. Today it was my mistake, yesterday was from another rider. I’m not happy about the double long lap penalty because what happened to me on the first corner yesterday was not correct and my bike was not ready to compete, which I could not know after only a few turns. Two long laps destroyed my race. Anyway, we hope to keep the speed for Barcelona.”