Spanish rider Marc Márquez (Ducati) won the MotoGP sprint race again this Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the fourteenth round of the World Motorcycling Championship, to further extend his lead at the top of the standings, on a day in which he also achieved pole position, as did Spaniard Máximo Quiles (KTM) in Moto3, while Manu González (Kalex) will start third in Moto2.
As is his custom on Saturdays, the Cervera native gave no one a chance and unchallenged the short race at the new Balaton Park Circuit, where he had also triumphed in the fight for pole position hours earlier. With this victory, he now has 12+1 points in the sprint in the 14 short races this season, where victory only eluded him at Silverstone—he finished second behind his brother Alex Márquez. 165 points out of a possible 168.
This Saturday he topped a podium in which he was accompanied by the two riders of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, the Italians Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Ducati), and thus reaches 430 points, 152 ahead of the second place in the standings, Alex Márquez (Ducati), who could only manage eighth, and 209 ahead of the third, the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who was thirteenth.
Once the lights went out, the championship leader defended his pole position, with Di Giannantonio and Morbidelli on his wheel, while chaos erupted behind him in the first two laps; first, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) went down, followed shortly after by his compatriot Johann Zarco (Honda) and Italian Enea Bastianini (KTM).
Little by little, Márquez extended his lead over his pursuers at a fast lap pace, and only the crash of Pedro Acosta (KTM) at Turn 11 during the sixth lap of the Hungarian circuit disturbed the tranquility of the second half of the race.
As for the other Spaniards, Fermín Aldeguer (Ducati) managed to finish fifth, ahead of a surprising Joan Mir (Honda) in sixth. Alex Márquez finished eighth; reigning world champion Jorge Martín (Aprilia) was ninth; Pol Espargaró (KTM), replacing the injured Maverick Viñales, finished tenth; Raúl Fernández (Aprilia) was eleventh; Alex Rins (Yamaha) was sixteenth; and Pedro Acosta was seventeenth.
Hours earlier, Marc Márquez took the first pole position in history at Balaton Park thanks to his 1:36.518 that allowed him to dominate Q2 with a three-tenths advantage over Italians Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati), who staged a great comeback this morning by coming first in Q1.
The eight-time world champion's two main rivals in the championship didn't make it past him: Alex Márquez (Ducati), second overall, will start fourteenth, while Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), third in the World Championship and Marc's teammate, will start thirteenth.
Meanwhile, Murcia's Pedro Acosta (KTM) and Fermín Aldeguer (Ducati) will start seventh and eighth, respectively, while Joan Mir (Honda) and Pol Espargaró (KTM) will begin the race from tenth and eleventh positions. Raúl Fernández (Aprilia) will start fifteenth; Jorge Martín (Aprilia) will start sixteenth; and Alex Rins (Yamaha) will start twentieth.
Moreira wins the Moto2 pole position
In Moto2, Brazilian Diogo Moreira (Kalex) continued to be the leading rider and will start from the front position, beating Dutchman Zonta van den Goorbergh (Kalex) in qualifying and the leader of the World Championship, Spaniard Manu González (Kalex), who will start third and with an advantage over his closest rival, Arón Canet (Kalex), who will start the race in sixth position.
In addition, Dani Holgado (Kalex) will start seventh, while Marcos Ramírez (Kalex) and Adrián Huertas (Kalex) will start eleventh and twelfth, respectively. Alonso López (Boscoscuro) will start fourteenth; Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) will start sixteenth; Alex Escrig (Forward) will start seventeenth; and Iván Ortolá (Boscoscuro) will start eighteenth.
Among the Spaniards who failed to advance to Q2, Jorge Navarro (Forward) secured nineteenth place on the grid, just ahead of Dani Muñoz (Kalex); Albert Arenas (Kalex) will start twenty-fourth; Unai Orradre (Boscoscuro) twenty-sixth; and Sergio García Dols (Kalex) twenty-seventh.
MÁXIMO QUILES WILL START FIRST IN MOTO3
Finally, Spaniard Máximo Quiles (KTM) claimed a best time of 1:46.060 to secure pole position for the Moto3 race, in which he will head the front row of the grid ahead of Argentinian Valentín Perrone (KTM) and second-place finisher Ángel Piqueras (KTM), also from Spain.
Meanwhile, Álvaro Carpe (KTM) and David Muñoz (KTM) will command the second row, fourth and fifth, and championship leader José Antonio Rueda (KTM) will start eighth, just ahead of Adrián Fernández (Honda). David Almansa (Honda) will start tenth, and Marcos Uriarte (KTM), despite making it through Q1 and finishing fifteenth in Q2, will have to start from the back of the grid.
