Marquez takes 100th win as Miller leads Yamaha charge at Hungary

Marc Marquez dominated Balaton Park after a nightmare first corner for Aprilia, while Jack Miller delivered his best ride of the season

After another long comeback from injury, Marquez produced a masterclass at Balaton Park to secure his century of wins across all classes, joining Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini in the 100-victory club. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider completed the weekend triple, and while he eventually broke clear, his battle with Pedro Acosta gave Sunday’s race its spark. Francesco Bagnaia claimed third for a third straight P3 finish, but the race was also shaped by huge Turn 1 drama involving several major championship players.

The chaos erupted at the tight first corner on the opening lap when Jorge Martin got out of shape under braking, with the front of his Aprilia appearing to lock. That sparked a five-rider crash that also swept up championship leader Marco Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez, Fermin Aldeguer and Fabio Di Giannantonio. Only Di Giannantonio managed to remount and continue.

Martin and Bezzecchi were taken to the medical centre for checks, with neither found to have suffered any visible fractures. Martin was later handed a double Long Lap penalty for his next Grand Prix over the incident, although Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola made clear he would have supported an even stronger punishment, saying, “A world champion cannot make a mistake like that.”

Among those to make the most of the opening-lap mayhem was Australia’s Jack Miller. The Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP rider immediately capitalised, charging into the leading group and climbing as high as fourth by lap two. He remained inside the top five until around half-race distance, underlining what became Yamaha and Pramac’s most competitive weekend of the season so far.

At the front, Marquez led early before Acosta struck at Turn 5 on lap two. The KTM rider muscled past his fellow Spaniard and then built a lead of more than a second. Behind them, Bagnaia settled into a fairly lonely third, while Miller was right in the thick of the fight behind him.

For much of the first half of the race, Miller led the chasing pack and looked sharp on the YZR-M1, with Luca Marini, Diogo Moreira, Enea Bastianini, Joan Mir, Ai Ogura and Iker Lecuona all in pursuit. It was another strong showing from the Queenslander, who combined pace, consistency and racecraft to stay firmly in contention as the race unfolded.

There was more contact in that midfield battle when Bastianini and Mir touched on the exit of Turn 1. Mir was almost thrown off twice, and Bastianini was penalised with a Long Lap. That dropped “The Beast” to 11th, just behind Toprak Razgatlioglu, Miller’s Prima Pramac Yamaha teammate, who also continued the progress he had shown all weekend.

Up front, Marquez began to reel Acosta back in as his medium rear Michelin came to life. The gap came down from 1.6 seconds to 0.7s by the start of lap 10. By lap 13, after back-to-back fastest laps, it was just 0.3s, then 0.2s on lap 14.

That lit the fuse for the fight everyone had been waiting for. Marquez attacked at Turn 9 on lap 14 and got through at Turn 10, but Acosta fired straight back underneath the reigning world champion to retake the lead. Marquez tried again at Turn 15, only for Acosta to hang on around the outside and shut the door at Turn 16.

On the next lap, Marquez launched another move at Turn 9. This time it stuck. Once back in front, the Ducati rider immediately opened the gap to a second and took control.

By lap 20 of 26, the margin was out to 1.6s, and Marquez then produced the fastest lap of the race, a 1:38.313 that was half a second quicker than Acosta. From there, the outcome was settled.

Prior to the race Marquez said there was ‘No chance” he could defeat his rivals at Balaton given his relative lack of fitness after recent surgery, but in the end he eased his way to a dominant, comfortable victory reminscient of some of his 2025 title winning performances. The result gave Marquez his first win of the season and also marked Ducati’s 100th victory. More importantly, it sent a clear message that the reigning world champion is firmly back in the fight.

Acosta took second after giving Marquez his toughest test of the day, collecting a valuable 20 points in a race where several title rivals failed to score heavily. Bagnaia’s third place made it three podiums in a row.

From an Australian perspective, Miller’s ride to eighth was one of his strongest performances of 2026 and his first top-10 finish of the year. Just as importantly, he was once again the leading Yamaha rider home. After surging to P4 on lap two and running in the top five until around mid-race, Miller stayed competitive inside the lead group before banking a result that reflected the gains made by Yamaha and the Prima Pramac outfit in recent months.

It was a significant weekend for the team overall, with Razgatlioglu also scoring in 11th after another encouraging ride. On a circuit expected to better suit the YZR-M1, both Pramac riders converted that promise into a double points finish, giving the squad its best combined result of the season.

Ahead of Miller in the final order, Ai Ogura used his late-race speed to snatch fourth from Marini, while the Honda rider took fifth to equal the marque’s best result. Moreira continued his impressive form with sixth, the Brazilian rookie’s best MotoGP finish to date, and Lecuona starred in seventh while filling in for the injured Alex Marquez.

Bastianini recovered from two Long Lap penalties to finish ninth, and Brad Binder rounded out the top 10. Razgatlioglu’s 11th was his best MotoGP finish so far, while Di Giannantonio salvaged 12th after being the only rider from the Turn 1 crash able to continue.

Alex Rins, Franco Morbidelli and Maverick Viñales completed the points scorers in Hungary.

In the championship, Marco Bezzecchi still leads the way on 180 points from Jorge Martin on 160, with Fabio Di Giannantonio third on 138 and Pedro Acosta fourth on 132. Marc Marquez’s Balaton Park win lifts him to fifth on 108, and Aprilia’s misery at Turn 1 allowed him to claw back a full 25 points in one hit. The gap to Bezzecchi remains a yawning 72 points, but with plenty of racing still to come, the seven-time world champion can’t be written off if he can start delivering this sort of form regularly.

Marc Márquez – P1
“We did an incredible job. The secret, in my opinion, was managing the effort on Friday: this allowed me to get to Saturday, and especially today, in the best possible shape. Obviously, I gave it everything today and luckily the choice of the medium tyre paid off in the closing stages, otherwise it would have been a lot harder. Now we’ll see how things go at Brno and Assen because, once again, things went better here due to the higher number of left-handers. This win came after a challenging period of surgeries and recovery, but it was worth it. As always, we need to stay positive and continue along this recovery path.”

Pedro Acosta – P2
“We tried everything. It was a really good battle and I hope everyone at home enjoyed it. We tried to take the maximum out of our package. Back-to-back podiums here and I’m quite happy. Now I’m looking forward to chilling at home and then concentrate on Brno.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P3
“The first goal for today was to get a better start. Luckily, when I released the clutch, the rear tyre spun slightly; otherwise, I would have been caught up in the turn-one incident as well. I managed to overtake Moreira and Marini straight away and then tried to stay with Pedro (Acosta), but I wasn’t able to match their lap times as I continued to struggle with grip. When they started to push harder, I focused on managing my margin over the riders behind. The podium is a good result, especially after the difficult start to the weekend, as it allowed us to score some important points. We need to keep working ahead of the upcoming races on bike stability in the changes of direction as well as on grip.”

Jack Miller – P8
“It was a decent race for us and I feel we got the maximum out of what we had available today. We managed to stay out of trouble at the start and put ourselves in a position to fight for points right from the opening laps. From there, it was all about managing the race as well as possible. I had to be quite careful with the rear tyre, especially on corner exit, and spent much of the race trying to protect the soft tyre and make sure it lasted until the chequered flag. We were still missing a little bit compared to some of the riders around us, particularly when accelerating out of the corners, but overall it was a stronger weekend and another step in the right direction for us. Now the focus shifts to Brno. It will present different challenges, including a couple of long straights, but we‘ll keep working hard and try to make the most of the strengths we have shown in recent races.”

2026 Hungarian MotoGP

2026 MotoGP Championship Standings