Scare at the start
A disaster in turn 1. This is how the Hungarian GP at Balaton Park began, confirming all the pre-race doubts about the safety of this track and that particular section. The Hungarian race opened with a total strike caused by Jorge Martin, who unfortunately replicated – on a larger scale – the disaster he caused last year in Japan at the start of the Sprint, when he took out his teammate Marco Bezzecchi.
Read more Hungarian GP 2026: Race Report
This time the 2024 world champion did worse: at the first corner after the start, he literally caused a strike by taking out four riders: Marco Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez, Fermin Aldeguer and Fabio Di Giannantonio. The latter was the only one able to restart, last and far behind, while for all the other four, the race stopped there.
(Almost) all the big names KO
The dynamics of the crash were strange and will need to be clarified: at first, it was thought to be a wrong and too late braking by Martin. In reality, however, replays showed that #89 – who, by the way, ended up at the medical center after the crash – does not seem to have braked particularly late. His Aprilia, however, suddenly bucked – perhaps due to a first slight contact with another bike, but there is no clear imagery – and became uncontrollable, unleashing chaos.
Certainly, it was a very heavy episode in terms of the championship for all the riders involved. Indeed, the first, second, fourth, and fifth in the world championship standings ended up on the ground. If they don’t make mistakes and finish ahead of everyone at the finish line, this could be a very important opportunity for Pedro Acosta and Marc Marquez to recover very significant championship points.
Read more Bagnaia: “I was lucky like that, I didn’t have the pace of Marquez and Acosta”
