Marc Marquez has given his approval of Balaton Park’s safety standards following MotoGP’s first Hungarian Grand Prix since 1992, despite several incidents over the weekend.
The tight and twisty anticlockwise circuit required significant adaptations for MotoGP, with added chicanes due to walls being too close to the track. The changes still produced worrying moments, including Enea Bastianini’s crash at Turn 12, where he slid across the chicane onto the racing line, and Pedro Acosta’s KTM hitting a camera tower during qualifying.
Marquez, however, felt the track passed the required safety threshold:
“For me, it’s safe enough and it’s a good track for racing. It’s tight, but you can overtake if you’re faster. The most important thing is that it’s a safe track. Crashes like Bastianini’s can happen at other circuits too, like Le Mans or Austin.”
The eight-time world champion noted that Turn 1 pile-ups were expected due to the layout, but argued such issues also occur at established venues like Catalunya. “When you arrive at a hard brake point on a new circuit, problems can happen. But in the grand prix everyone was more careful,” he said.
Balaton Park attracted just under 33,000 fans on race day, one of the lowest attendances of the season, but Marquez highlighted the importance of MotoGP expanding into new countries.
