MotoGP: Marquez clinches dominant victory at maiden Balaton MotoGP race

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez displayed a dominant performance at the Grand Prix of Hungary to clinch his tenth victory of the season. F1Technical.net's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports from the Balaton Park Circuit paddock.

Starting from pole position, Marc Marquez lost the lead into Turn 1, with Aprilia factory rider Marco Bezzecchi flying into P1.

With the six-time MotoGP champion trying to fight back at Turn 2, he touched the back of Bezzecchi's Aprilia. As a result of the contact, VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli also found the way past Marquez, who dropped to third.

On the back of a challenging qualifying session for Pedro Acosta, the Spaniard worked his way up to P4 on the opening lap. At the same time, Francesco Bagnaia also had a great start to the Balaton race, flying up to P7 from his disappointing 15th starting position.

On Lap 5, Marquez carved his way through on Morbidelli to climb into P2, and he now found himself 0.7s adrift of race leader Bezzecchi. Acosta then also closed in on the VR46 rider quickly and managed to pick him off.

In the meantime, Marquez set the fastest lap after the fastest lap to close in on Bezzecchi. The duo was then embroiled in a fierce multi-lap battle, but the Ducati factory rider forced his way past Bazzecchi to take over the lead. The Spaniard then unleashed his ominous race pace to immediately build up a healthy lead from the chasing pack.

On the back of his second-place finish at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Fermin Aldeguer's day ended in disappointment as he suffered a crash at Turn 1. Although the Gresini Ducati man was able to pick up his bike and continue the race, he dropped to the back of the field as a result of the incident.

At the sharp end of the field, Acosta put Bezzecchi under huge pressure. On Lap 16, the Italian went slightly wide at Turn 15, and he was able to capitalize on his rival's small mistake to pick him off into Turn 1.

In the meantime, reigning champion Jorge Martin upped his pace and managed to force his way past Morbidelli to improve to fourth place.

Although Acosta attempted to reduce the gap to Marquez, he had to settle for second place while Marquez secured his seventh consecutive MotoGP victory at the brand-new Balaton Park Circuit.

Bezzecchi looked to struggle for grip in the dying stages of the race, but he still managed to hold on to the last spot on the podium, adding sixteen points to his tally.

His Aprilia team-mate Martin came home fourth, just under a second ahead of Luca Marini, who recorded his best race result with Honda. Morbidelli dropped down to sixth, with Pol Espargaro, who stood in to replace Maverick Vinales, finished in an impressive eighth position.

Although Bagnaia completed a brilliant start, he made a mistake after the halfway point of the race, and finished back in ninth place, ahead of 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo.

Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura took 11th, from Migeul Oliveira in P12 and Alex Rins in P13. Following his crash in the early stages of the race, Alex Marquez finished in a disappointing 14th place, with Fabio Di Giannantonio having ended up in the last points-daying spot.

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