New Track? No Problem. Marc Powers Through Hungary

Balaton Park provided new challenges, surprises, and a few things we've never seen before. But through it all, Marc continues to be next-level. I recap the action - and some of the unusual occurrences - of the HungarianGP!

The Rundown:

- What happens when there is a tie in Q1? We found out this weekend
- Qualifying: Two riders come out of Q1 to sit on the front row
- Chain-reaction penalty for Alex Marquez and Jack Miller 
- Sprint Race: VR46 comeback, Marc doesn't break a sweat
- Fabio Quartararo penalty
- MotoGP Race: Marc gets roughed up. It doesn't matter
- Another young rider makes a late charge for second
- Aprilia is looking better and better
- Why Honda losing out on Jorge Martin was the right thing for now - Marini is what they need
- WSBK needs to get Pol Espargaro a ride
- Pecco Bagnaia is struggling, but it isn't THAT bad
- The MotoGP Championship Picture: I do a LOT of math. The end result is still the same - Motegi
- My take on Balaton Park

What did you think of the HungarianGP? Let me know on Facebook or the Motoweek Reddit Sub.

Find all of the latest episodes at Motoweek.net, follow on Bluesky and Instagram – and you can support the show on Patreon!

Thanks for listening!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Frommotorweek Dot neg It's the MotorWeek podcast with your host Wilson.
A challenging new track brings some surprises, some frustration and
more Mark domination Balaton Park gives us something different and fun.
Hello and welcome to the Motorwek post race show for
Round fourteen of the twenty twenty five MotoGP World Championship

(00:24):
the Hungarian GP at Balaton Park outside.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Of the beautiful city of Budapest.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
My name is Wilson, I'm your host. And the question
everybody had coming into this round, would the uncertainty of
a brand new track be able to stop or even
slow down Mark Marquez. The answer to that question is no,
not at all, not even one little bit, and we

(00:50):
definitely saw that this weekend where he once again just
went out and did the same thing he's been doing
all season long, winning races, buy a lot and hardly
even trying at this point now, for everyone other than Mark,
this was kind of a wildcard weekend. I mean, we
had surprises on the podium, tense moments, lots of contact

(01:14):
and even more riders washing out the front end in
one of the many chicanes this place features the Marshall's
definitely got their workout, running back and forth through the
gravel traps for all three days as a result. So
let's talk about what happened, who adapted the best, and
what the championship picture looks like in the wake of
MotoGP's long away to return to Hungary. Before we get started, though,

(01:38):
I would like to take a brief moment to invite
you over to the website if you've never checked it
out before. You can get all of the latest episodes
as soon as they're released at motoweek dot net. You
can follow on Blue Sky just search for motoweek or
on Instagram at motoweek USA and leave your comments let
me know what you think of Balaton Park of Mark

(01:58):
Marquez's credibly dominant performance and where you think that leaves
him in the championship picture. You can do that on
Facebook at Facebook dot com slashmotowek dot net, or over
on the reddit subb at r slash motoweek. And if
you do feel like supporting the show and don't feel obligated,
but if you want to, you can do that on
Patreon at Patreon dot com slash motoweek and it definitely

(02:22):
is appreciated. All right, So let's dive into the first
Hungarian GP in what like thirty years or something like
that by talking about qualifying. Actually we can rewind to
Friday in practice where we had a few surprises there.
Mark Marquez was not the fastest almost but not quite.
He got edged out by Pedro Acosta. More importantly, Peco

(02:43):
bag Yaya nowhere to be found. He had to go
through Q one. He struggled in practice, then once we
got to Saturday morning he duplicated those efforts.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
In Q one.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
He actually wasn't that far off the pace, if we're
being perfectly honest. The other he didn't move on. He
lost out to Marco Bitzeki and Fabio digian Antonio. And
we're gonna talk more about Peko in a moment, because
while there was a lot of doom and gloom being
talked about on the world Feed broadcast surrounding Peco, not
just in qualifying, but the entire weekend, and that comes

(03:15):
from a real place. I do think that it was
a little bit on the sensationalistic side. They were going
a little bit over the top. And like I said,
we'll talk more about Peco in a moment but I
want to focus on qualifying right now, because the most
interesting part of qualifying actually there were two most interesting parts.
Number one, there was actually a tie for the second

(03:37):
spot in Q one for the second opportunity to move
on to Q two. Fabio Digitan Antonio and Brad Bender
had the exact same lap times, and so we got
to find out what happens when only one rider can
move on to the next session. The tie breaker is
those riders' second best laps compared. That gave the nod

(03:59):
to Day in the end, who had scored his second
fastest time just one lap earlier than the hot lap
that tied him with Bender. So that was super rare.
I've never even seen that before. And then the second
thing I found interesting in qualifying was something else that's
relatively rare. It was one of those moments where extra
track time in Q one seemed to pay real dividends

(04:22):
in terms of understanding the conditions the pavement and getting
the most speed.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Out of the bike.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
As those two guys that ended up moving on, Marko
Pitzeki and Fabia de jan Antonio then proceeded to land
themselves on the front row in second and third in
Q two, and remember this was just one week after
Bez came out of Q one to land the poll
in Austria. Now, a lot of times when there are
difficult conditions, changing weather, rain, things like that, the commentators

(04:50):
a lot of times they'll say, oh, well, it might
be an advantage to the guys in Q one. They're
getting more track time, they're finding out where the limits are.
But usually that's not the case. Here the town Park though,
brand new track, everybody's pushing to try to get down
into the mid one thirty fives, and I really think
it did help Bez and Digia to have those extra laps,

(05:12):
to push harder, find out where the limit was, and
then try to exploit that in the second session because
Mark Marquez's full time wasn't that far off of what
Betzeki ran in Q one, So did they get an
advantage maybe a little bit. And that's a rare thing
in general, but especially on a dry track, that's a
rare moment, So that made qualifying pretty interesting. Of course,

(05:34):
Bez and Digita did the best they could, but neither
they or anybody else for that matter, had anything for
Mark Marquez, and really, in that respect, it didn't live
up to the hype because everybody was talking up Pedro
Acosta from Friday going into Saturday. Like I mentioned, Pedro
had just edged out Mark in practice. That had a
lot of people wondering whether a Costa could maybe bring

(05:57):
something to Q two that might prevent Mark from taking
the top spot. Of course, that didn't happen. Acosta toss
his KTM into the gravel trap and qualifying. Then after
that he had to go to a backup bike. He
only landed seventh on the grid, and just as shockingly,
Alex Marquez didn't have anything near the pace of his brother.

(06:19):
He was only quick enough for eleventh in Q two,
but on top of that had netted himself a three
grid position penalty in practice on Friday, in a very
very strange situation, all right, So I believe it was
Fabio di Jane Antonio that was up ahead of Alex,
and he wasn't right there near him. He was pretty
far up ahead. But Alex thought that he had been

(06:41):
impeded by Digia or whoever it was up ahead by
slowing down on the racing line. So he sat up,
threw his arm up in the air because he was upset,
like anybody could see that, and in turn held up
Jack Miller, who got upset at him and put his
hand up in the air and was like, what are
you doing? And that in turn held up Pecko bag Yahya,

(07:02):
who that put his hand up in the air and
was like, what are you guys all doing? And because
Alex got mad at the rider in front of him
and Jack got mad at the rider in front of
him and there was nobody behind Pecko for him to
hold up, that got both Alex and Jack a three
grid position penalty. Do I agree with all of that?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I do, because the premise behind all of it was
that riders were all just kind of playing around, trying
to find somebody to ride behind, to either get a
marker or to get a toe off of. And what
I want to see and what I think everybody should
want to see in Q one Q two any qualifying
session aren't guys playing games, but guys going out there

(07:45):
and getting it done. And especially at a track like
Balaton Park. How important is the draft anyway? How much
of a draft can you get on those shorter straits?
Not a whole lot. And I don't think unless maybe
you're following mart Marquez and co keep up with him,
that it's going to be enough to vault you up
to the poll anyway, So just go out there and
do your thing. Me Mark was out there not following anybody,

(08:07):
and he was able to set the fastest lap. If
he can do it, you can do it too. And
so the long story short here is that if you
don't want to risk getting a penalty in qualifying for
holding people up, don't stop. Just keep going, don't look
for somebody to ride behind, worry about your own lab,
not everybody else's. So Mark once again leading the way,

(08:30):
and then Bez clearly having heard the pre race show
and my predictions for him, stepped up his game after
a very inconsistent practice day, got through to Q two,
got to the front row, lining up next to Mark Marquez,
setting the stage for a Ducati a prelius showdown between
the two hottest riders in the sport right now, and

(08:50):
that of course took us into Saturday afternoon and the
sprint race. And if you remember, we talked on the
pre race show about what happened the first time World
Superbike went down into that term one two combo a
few weeks ago. Well, the Motor GP riders quickly discovered
the dangers of the race start at Balaton Park because

(09:12):
right away into term one, Fabio Quachraro is trying to
dive up the inside and score a couple of quick spots. Meanwhile,
Marko Bitzeki is trying to recover from a less than
ideal start, trying to make up a spot or to
himself that he lost off the lights. Fabio de Jay
and Antonio happens to be sandwiched between those two guys
and simply not trying to get pinched. All while in

(09:35):
a Basciennini is attempting a video game start by running
by everybody on the outside of term one. Now if
that sounds like a lot of bikes to occupy one
corner at the same time, well, yes, yes it is.
Contact definitely happened. Quatrraro got the worst of it. He
ended up in the gravel trap, Bascionini got pushed way wide,

(09:56):
and then a couple of turns later he ran smack
into the back join Zarco, taking.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Both of them out for good.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Bez held onto his bike, but he lost a lot
of places in the process, ruining any chance of a
Mark Bez shootout in this one, and speaking of Mark,
he got an incredible start off the line and that
ended up being really critical to what happened for him
the rest of the race, because he was well clear
of that mayhem that was happening behind him.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
So he's up front.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
The VR forty six bikes that were right in the
thick of all that madness somehow survived the melee they
slotted in just behind. Now, when it comes to that
wreck itself, initially from the broadcast angle which was down
low sitting outside of term one, initially it actually looked
like Fabio Quachruraro may have already had position on the

(10:46):
inside and that maybe it was Bez that cut the
line across in front of Digia when they made contact
that pushed the VR forty six rider into Quatruroro. But
thankfully they showed a replay from the overhead from the
helicopter and that showed a far different scenario. Fabio, knowing
that he had to get as much track position as

(11:06):
possible to have any kind of chance to exploit whatever
handling advantage as M one may have had, he simply
die bombed the corner. He was trying to thread the
needle in between a couple of bikes, and to his credit,
he almost did it, He almost snuck through there, but
he was also totally out of control, and so yeah,
he caused that. Now, the last thing that either he

(11:29):
or Yamaha needed or wanted was a penalty for Sunday,
but that's what happened. He was hit with a finaate
lap that, of course he couldn't serve on Saturday because
he was out of the race, so he was going
to have to serve it on Sunday. And you can't
really argue with that. He was out of control, which
was a really rare thing to happen to Fabio Quacherraro.

(11:49):
Usually he's a very very clean rider. Now, for his part,
Bassionini got a double long lap penalty for running into
Zarco since he had already gotten along lap penalty earlier
in the year for a separate accident, and that then
blew any chance of him being able to turn his
fantastic fourth place qualifying effort into something big on Sunday.

(12:12):
So with the main potential contenders losing spots and momentum
off the start, it was absolutely zero surprise at all.
Then to see Mark Marquez absolutely dominate. I mean, there
was already nobody that could really compete with Mark, but
for Acosta to not be on the front two rows
to start, both he and Bitteki getting held up by

(12:35):
the Quachuro incident, and the Ducats of Alex Marquez and
pecobag Naya nowhere to be found in this one. All
weekend long, there just wasn't anybody left to try to
challenge him, and so Mark just cruise to another victories,
thirteenth in a row, and it didn't even look like
it was that difficult for him. And yeah, the VR
forty six pikes did a great job, and we'll talk
about those guys in the second, but let's face it,

(12:58):
it was the first time this year that they were
even in that position to see market the front, and
they just didn't have the speed or the experience in
that position to figure out how to get up there
and challenge him.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
So it was just.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Another step in the process for the elder Marquez to
solidify this championship. He's making it look so easy right
now against the absolute best riders in the world, and
they just can't even get close to him. It is
so impressive to watch. It's very much Rassi in his prime,
Casey Stoner when he was on top of the world,

(13:32):
and Lorenzo in his prime. I mean, he's just so
next level right now. And I know I've talked about
that a lot, but what more can you say? So
I won't Right now, We'll move on Fabio to Jian Antonio.
He led the way on a very impressive day for
VR forty six Saturday, both teammates starting on the front row,
both of them somehow surviving being in the eye of

(13:52):
the storm that was Fabio Guacraro in that first turn
and didn't just come out of it running, but came
out of it in podium position, And from that point
forward it was all up to them sorting it out
amongst themselves and Fabio just trying to hold off his
teammate because neither of those guys was going to go
up there and catch Mark. But in the process, Digia

(14:13):
scores his best sprint finish of the year and his
first podium since back in Mugello. Now, for a VR
forty six organization that has really been plagued by mistakes
and bad luck for pretty much three consecutive rounds, it
was a fantastic return to relevance, and that feeling was
only reinforced by the run that we saw out of

(14:33):
Frankel Morbidelli. In fact, I would argue that Frankie's result
was that much more impressive. You remember, he was coming
off of that colorbone injury that happened in Germany that
subsequently held him out of the Czech GP, and yeah,
he had the summer break to rest it, but he
got off to a slow start in his return at
the Red Bull Ring. So to come back one week

(14:53):
later and run so strong this weekend, that was a
great sign that he is fe healthier again. And he
was looking like that rider that we saw in the
four rounds before he had that injury. I mean, VR
forty six was really looking like they were going to
challenge Grissini for the top satellite team this year, and

(15:14):
then both of those guys just kind of stumbled. And
so this was an excellent race for Frankie and for
VR forty six as a whole. I mean, this sprint
was definitely the boost that that organization needed. But the
VR forty six to two weren't the only riders that
surprised in this sprint. On Saturday, I'm going to talk
about a couple of other riders, starting with Luca Marini,

(15:35):
and listen, let's be honest about this. We shouldn't take
Marini's fourth place finish or his teammate Joimer's sixth place
finish in this sprint as a sign that Honda is
now going to go out and fight with Dukati for
podiums every race weekend. Right, the verdict is still out there,
but as far as it pertains to this technical style

(15:55):
of track, they definitely brought something really really encourage. They
had a new chassis, new arrow and electronics updates and
that helped that factory Honda duo look excellent in this sprint,
and Marini and really both factory bikes looked completely different

(16:15):
than what we've come to expect. Marini's fourth wasn't just
his best sprint finish of the year, it was his
best sprint finish ever on an RC two thirteen V
And the same was true for Juamir, his best sprint
performance ever on a Honda and just the third time
that he scored sprint points on that bike in his

(16:37):
entire Honda career. I know that's very depressing when you
think about it, but it just highlights how good of
e RaSE this was for him, and I would argue
that it was the best overall performance ever by Honda
in a sprint because we've only had sprints for three seasons,
so great stuff, really encouraging to see.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Again.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
I don't know how those improvements are going to translate
to bigger, faster, but hey, I'm not going to be
picky here. I mean to see Honda bring stuff out
to the track and have those things directly impact their
results in a positive way. And you see that measurable difference.
That is awesome. That is exactly what we want to see.

(17:18):
We want to see those manufacturers that are struggling right
now do something to help tighten up the level of
competition and get things closer again. And so kudos to
Honda because and we'll talk more about Marini in the
Sunday race here in a second, but they obviously did
something to take a step in the right direction. The
big question is going to be whether we see that

(17:40):
same level of improvement once we get to San Marino
and the tracks beyond that are bigger and a bit faster.
Moving on, though, Marco Bitzeki, he finished seventh in the sprint.
But man, he left us all wondering how much better
could it have been had he not gotten into that
incident or have been affected by that incident with Fabio,
so he could have been in podium contention. I really

(18:02):
think he would have been. It ruined his day, and
that was evidenced by what we saw out of him
on Sunday. The speed was there, Alex Marquez was uncharacteristically
slow and qualifying, and then he wasn't able to change
his fortunes at all once this sprint started. And the
weird part about this is he's been so strong on
Saturdays at such a wide variety of tracks, and so

(18:26):
you might think, Okay, it's a brand new track, he's
not familiar with Balaton Park. One bad sprint, it's not.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
A big deal. But that's not the case.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
He's actually struggled multiple rounds now on Saturday, and that's
a little bit concerning. After the first ten rounds. In
the first ten rounds of the year, Alex Marquez finished
second in every single one saved for the one race
thy one Soho was first or second in the first
ten sprints of the season. In the past four sprints,

(18:58):
Alex has finished eighth, seventeenth, second and then eighthan this one,
now there was the injury mixed in there and that
might have been contributing. But for me, the big question
coming into the second half for Alex Marquez was one
of consistency, and we talked about this before we started
at Austria. Could he keep up what we saw in

(19:19):
the first half of the year, especially with increased competition
coming from a Prillian in KTM. So far it's been
a bit rocky, but not so much because of the
increased competition as much as it's been because of Alex himself.
So Alex Marquez is a writer to watch very closely
over the next couple of rounds, not just to see

(19:40):
if he can even that performance out and get it
back up to the level that we saw at the
beginning of the year, but he also has second in
the championship to hang on to, and he's battling to
keep Grissini up in the race to be the top
satellite team as well. So there's a lot on the
line for Alex and he's got to keep turning in
those second place results if he's gon to support all

(20:01):
of those individual efforts. Now, as we move on to
Jorge Martin. We'll talk about his Sunday performance here in
a few moments, but even if you leave that part out,
the way Martin finished Saturday out had to be absolutely
encouraging for a Prillia because he was nowhere in qualifying.
He was sixteenth on the grid. But then he started

(20:23):
figuring things out late in the sprint, battled his way
all the way up to that final spot in the
point to ninth, only two places behind his teammate Pitzechi. Although,
like we said, Bez have mitigating circumstances in this sprint.
But you want to talk about confidence building races, you
don't often get the chance to see that play out immediately.

(20:44):
But that's exactly what happened with Martin from Saturday to Sunday,
and again more in that in a moment. But then
there is the opposite side of that spectrum in terms
of confidence.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Peco Bagnyaya and I'll get this.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Out of the way right off the bat, the world
few commentators they were playing things up just a little
bit Saturday on the broadcast. I mean, yes, there were
plenty of concerning lap times to talk about, but those
guys were painting this picture like Peco was simply unable
to ride the bike, and that everything he was doing

(21:20):
on track was somehow failing miserably. At one point in
Q one they were discussing just how much Pecko was struggling,
and then a few seconds later he had crossed the
line and set the second fastest time in the session. Now,
obviously that didn't hold up, but he wasn't that far
off the pace of those top two anyway. I think
he had only missed out on moving on by less

(21:41):
than a tenth. I think it was five hundredths of
a second. And if he had been just a whisker faster,
just five hundredths of a second faster, and moved on,
if he had posted the exact same lap time in
Q two, he would have qualified seventh on the grid,
which is exactly where Pedro Acosta qualified. And nobody was saying, oh,
Pedro Costa is like struggling and he's on the verge

(22:03):
of being out of the sport type of thing. Now,
I get it, because Peco is not performing the way
that we expect him to, But I mean, he's not
as bad as they're trying to say either. It's not
a lost cause, it's not like he has zero chance
of doing anything for the rest of the season. He
just lacks confidence. And that being said, Peco was not

(22:24):
good in the sprint, He wasn't really good all weekend long.
But in a way it kind of made sense. And
I'll explain what I mean, because in every session we
saw the characteristics of this track really be the prime player.
It wasn't rider versus rider, it was rider versus track.
And I know there are people out there that were

(22:45):
not a fan of the circuit, and what we saw
this weekend, I thought it was very interesting. I thought
that it was a great change of pace. And in
every single one of those sessions we saw riders leaning
so hard on the front break that they were like
lifting the rear wheel. And that's not unique to Moto GP.
We saw the same thing in World Superbike. And so
if you're a Peko Bagnaya right now, what is the

(23:08):
thing he's struggling the most with the front end? And
so if you are a rider like Peco who does
not trust the front tire, doesn't trust leaning on the
front end with every single bit of force you possibly can,
you're not going to go fast here. And so it
stands the reason that he probably wasn't going to be

(23:29):
able to attack the track as aggressively as he needed to.
We saw evidence of that on Saturday and on Sunday,
and you know, it's a different Peco right now because
he's not riding like he normally does last year. I
don't think he struggles nearly as much as this track,
but it's just his confidence level with the bike, and
I'm not going to go back into that because it's

(23:50):
not just the bike's fault.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
It is rider and bike as a whole.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
And that's evidence s by how Mark is riding and
how Fabi, the Jane Antonio and Franco Morbidelli are riding
as well, and me and out of gear for that matter.
But it's not that surprising to see Peco not really
be able to go after this track the way you
needed to, and the results showed that. But while it
was a different Peco out there, it was very much
the same Mark for sure. So it's all Marquez in

(24:17):
the sprint, all Mark Marquez in the sprint, but the
likes of Bez and Acosta, they didn't get a fair
shot on Saturday, and so I was really hoping that
Sunday would show us something different that those guys would
have more of a chance. Is that how it happened. Well,
we'll talk about the Moti GP race next, all right,

(24:38):
So let's continue our discussion of this weekend's Hungarian GP
at Balaton Park by moving on to Sunday and the
main event, the Moto GP race. And man I thought
we saw weird stuff on Saturday with the tie in
qualifying and then those Q one guys going on to
be on the front row. Well it got even stranger
before the race even start. Guarded on Sunday, Bobbio dig

(25:02):
and Antonio on the siding lap noticed that something was
wrong with his bike, so he gets on the grid.
He tells the team about it. They're plugging in the computer,
looking at everything. They even start up the bike. At
one point they're like, you know what, you're probably right
and this probably isn't going to fix itself. So they
gave Digita two options. They said, we can roll this

(25:25):
bike off the grid and either fix it or go
to your backup bike.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
But because you left the.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Grid, then that'll get you a two long lap penalty,
or you can go do the warm up lap, assess
the situation. If you think the bike is still unrideable,
bring it down Pitt Road after the warm up lap,
swapped your backup bike, in which case you're going to
have to start from Pitt Lane, which would effectively put
him at the tail end of the field. Plus a

(25:50):
little bit extra on top of that, because they wait
for everybody to get through Term one before they release
you from Pitt Road. So the team decided on the
ladder option and we got a very rare pit lane
start for a rider in this one, and unfortunately it
absolutely ruined and almost as rare front row start for Digia.

(26:12):
And I'll be honest, I don't think they made the
right decision there. I don't think they really thought that through, because, yes,
the two long lap penalties is big. It's going to
cost you a lot of time and a lot of
positions on the track, but you at least run the
first lap. Then they notify you that you have two
more laps to start running your penalties, and so that

(26:35):
gives you three laps, and in three laps, not only
can a lot happen in Modo GP, but if he
has a fast bike, which we knew he did from Saturday,
in the sprint. That means in the number of laps
that you have, you can push hard from the front row,
try to distance yourself as much as you can from
the rest of the field, and in the process hope
that the field gets stretched out a little bit. So

(26:57):
then when you start running those long laps apps you
lose positions, but the number of positions you lose is
lower because everybody's spread out by a little bit, so
you at least have a chance of not going all
the way to the back of the field. But when
you start from pitt Lane, you're one hundred percent guaranteed
to be at the back of the field. And on

(27:19):
top of that, you're going to have at least a
couple of seconds to make up. And so when you
think about that more practically, yeah, you run the two
long laps and you got to make up about six seconds,
and maybe you've been passed by eight or ten riders, right,
But if you start from pitt Lane, you still have
to make up two seconds and then you got to
pass twenty riders to get back to where you started

(27:42):
the race. So I don't think they really thought that
through thoroughly, but they chose what they chose. He battled
his way back to fifteenth, but I think he cost
himself a good five or six spots on the track
by doing it that way. Now, you would think that
with one less bike at the front, and with the
better idea of what to expect in those first two

(28:02):
corners of Balaton Park, it would have avoided the kind
of craziness that we saw off the lights in the sprint,
and that was almost the case, but not quite. There
was contact in turn two and cranking up the drama
even more. That contact involved Mark Marquez and it damaged
his bike. It actually cracked his right front faring right
around the wing. He got stood up as Marco Pitzeki

(28:23):
caught the line underneath him and moved into the lead.
So Mark spots the field a couple of positions and
he finds both Bez and Franco Morbidelli out in front
of him. But the drama wasn't done because right after
that we had the Naa Bascienini crash and that thing,
oh man, you want to talk about nerve wracking. It

(28:44):
wasn't a big wreck, it was just a small, low speed,
low side, but it was where he did it across
one of the Chicanes and he slid right back in
the traffic, and it was like that cliche scenario where
you're watching the train headed for you in slow motion.
This thing developed so slowly that even Bestia like saw

(29:06):
what was going on. I had time to process it,
and he was like, oh man, what am I going
to do here? I know I'm going to slide back
onto the track. Thankfully, nothing happened. I mean, how he
got through that without getting hit by somebody was simply
a testament to the skill of the riders around him.
At the front of the line, I was holding my
breath that nothing bad was going to happen because we

(29:26):
had so long to wait to find out if he
was going to make it through okay. So thankfully everything
was good there now the end result of all of
that early race chaos, by the back half of the
third lap, Marco Bitteki had actually built a lead of
a couple attents on Morbidelli and Mark was closely in
toe to Frankie, and it looked for a little bit

(29:49):
like we finally had a real race developing here, that
somebody was going to be able to step up and
challenge Mark Marquez and the situation really set itself up
as a bit of a chess match, because Bez clearly
had a strategy here, and it was the right strategy.
He was pushing hard because he had the softer retire,
so he knew he had to make as much of

(30:12):
a gap as possible because Mark was on the medium tire,
so he was looking at the second half of the
race here he wanted to extend his grip all the
way to the end. And honestly, that's a smart move
for somebody who has been consistently so much faster than
everybody else at every single track. Why not play a
conservative and play for the second half of the race

(30:32):
because you know that even when they're on their game
on a better tire, you're probably still just as fast
as them. And then with twenty one to go, it
didn't even take until the second half of this one.
Mark made his move in the second and it really
looked like he was just scouting out the situation for
a couple of laps, planning his strategy, and once he
got by Frankie, Mark really rapidly started erasing any lead

(30:56):
that Marco had at the front. And meanwhile, the star
of practice, Pedro Acosta. He cranked it up himself, closing
in on Morbidelli for that final spot on the podium.
At that point the fight was on for first, second, third,
and fourth.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
There were two.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Attempts at the front by Mark to pass, two quick
retakes by Bitzecki. Thank you, Marco for making things a
heck of a lot of fun, even if it was
just for half a lap or so. Mark ended up
kind of cooling it down for a few laps, then
with fifteen to go, used one of those many chicanes
at Balaton Park to run wide into one half, then

(31:33):
use the resulting position inside to make the past stick
on the second half, and that was it. It was
off to the races for Mark Marquez, who took what
like two laps after that to build a one and
a half second lead. I mean, I'm running out of
things to say. The guy's just absolutely unstoppable right now.
And despite that bit of chass at the start and
having a damaged bike, he didn't get rattled. He settled

(31:56):
in knowing that his tires were going to be better
the second half of the race. There was nothing, and
really is nothing anybody can do against Mark right now.
He is always in complete control. And I think that
is one of the big differences between the Mark Marquez
of now and the Mark when he was in his
prime at Honda, because even when he was winning everything

(32:20):
back then, controlling his emotions was a persistent challenge because
at that point it wasn't just about winning. For Mark,
it was about leading every single lap, and so that
forced him to override situations, and he would ride himself
into mistakes and bad places, and then once that happened,

(32:40):
he would double down when he tried to recover from that,
and so he was a one man wrecking crew at times.
But that's gone. I mean now he's got more perspective,
and it really shows in his approach. He doesn't let
the situation get the better of him, and he thinks
in terms of complete races and of championships as opposed

(33:01):
to thinking in terms of laps or incidents or I have.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
To lead the most all the time. Now we got to.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Take a step back and realize that those things are
a lot easier to do when you're riding the way
he's riding right now, and when you have the point
margin that he has right now. He gives somebody basically
a two underd point lead and have him win seven
races in a row, and you can afford to be patient,
because what's the big deal if you misjudge it and

(33:28):
you finished second one weekend. But you know that was
the case in the past when he was dominating the
sport and he wasn't able to control his emotions then,
So it definitely is the key difference and a sign
of maturity for Mark to be approaching races the way
he is right now, not just performing the way he is,

(33:49):
and boys he performing it is a massively impressive win
streak that he's in the middle of his seventh double
win weekend, fourteen straight points victories, and he will have
gone unbeaten now for three consecutive months once we get
to San Marino. That is wild, wild stuff to dominate

(34:11):
a sport with this many incredibly good riders for that
long of a stretch, and it doesn't look like it's
gonna stop anytime soon. All right, let's move on from
him to Pedro Acosta, and you know what, the sprint
didn't work out for him, but the Moto GP race
what a ride. I mean, this performance is going to
be largely overshadowed by the fact that a Mark is

(34:34):
on that epic wind streak, the likes of which we
haven't seen in like a decade. B Mark won this
race by four point three seconds, making the rest of
the field look slow by comparison.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
And see, there just wasn't.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
A lot of drama involved in Pedro Acosta's ride. I mean, honestly,
Bez and Mark had a way better back and forth
than Bez and Acosta. Marco just kind of blew a
corner a Costa went by. That was that for their battle.
But that shouldn't take away anything from the fact that
this was an absolutely phenomenal race by Pedro Costa. I

(35:10):
loved everything about it. He started seventh and early on
Pedro was one point nine seconds behind Marco Bitzeki. Now
despite the fact that he and Bez were both on
the same softer retire. Remember Mark was on the medium.
Those guys were on the same tire, and yet Acosta
not only made up all of that ground by the
end of the race, but he ended up gapping Marco

(35:31):
at the end by a further three full seconds, So
he gained five seconds over Marco Bitzeki from his lowest
point to the end of the race. On the same
exact tire, and he just kept putting up lap after
lap after lap in the low one thirty eighth. He
was super consistent and super fast for a rider not
named Mark Marquez. These are the kind of performances KATM

(35:54):
needs so badly, not only for themselves, but to encourage
Pedro that there's a reason to stick around after twenty
twenty six. And you know, I said coming into this
round that I was looking for something out of Acosta
to reinforce what we got from him at KTM's home
track last weekend that the Red Bull Ring, and he delivered.

(36:15):
It was his best result of the year. It was
I think one of his best rides of the year,
even though there wasn't a lot of action involved passing guys,
and it was very encouraging for the rest of the season.
Now the guy he beat out, Marco Bitzeki, continued on
his fantastic run, although I have to admit I felt
that his performance was tarnished a bit by the fact

(36:38):
that Acosta and KTM in general passed him at the
end of this one and.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Did it so easily.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
I mean, he's typically so good at late race strategy
and now two rounds in a row, we've seen Marco
Bitzeki get passed late in the race for second place,
and once again I do think that battling so hard
with Mark and then trying to keep up with him
after that pass may have been the turning point. But
let's not bury the lead here. Bez has finished on

(37:06):
the podium in four of the last five Moto GP races,
and every time out over the last five rounds, sprints
and races alike, he's had podium speed even when he
hasn't finished on the box. Prilia have done a fantastic
job of turning that bike into a consistent podium contender

(37:26):
based on what we saw at the start of the year,
and but Tzechi is doing such a phenomenal job of
taking everything Aprilia is giving to him and making the
most of it and leading the charge for them, and
it's kind of a shame that he isn't getting more
credit for that. I mean, just in this race on Sunday,
as we move on to other riders that I want

(37:48):
to talk about, I think that more attention and more
headlines have already been dedicated to the rider who finished
one spot below. Butzechi Jorge Martin, and that is definitely merited.
I mean, attention definitely should be focused on Martin because listen,
he started sixteenth and he somehow finished just one spot

(38:12):
off the podium. I mean, sixteenth to fourth is the
type of day that Brad Binder would be jealous of.
And Binder wasn't that bad himself. He were from twelfth
to seventh in this race, which normally would look excellent.
But as everybody's like, oh man, Martin is about to
start winning races tomorrow, let's take a quick step back
and be fair about this because a lot of the

(38:34):
ground that he made up was due to a great
jump and a fantastic first slap that saw him move
from sixteenth to seventh when everybody was close together. He
didn't grind this one out the way that you would
see like the aforementioned Brad Binder do when he starts
at the back of the grid. He got a lot
of spots right away, which is commendable, but it is
easier than having to pass a whole bunch of guys

(38:55):
that are stretched out. So he goes from sixteenth to seventh,
so that's kind of where he's running in that seventh
place area well later on for me in out of
air rex, so that automatically is going to move you
up one spot, So that would be a net of sixth.
He finished fourth in this race, and so what that
means is that outside of that first lap, he actually
only passed two more riders, Luca Marini and Frankie Morbidelli,

(39:19):
And so that's a little bit more realistic picture of
how this race.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Went for him.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
And when you look at Martin's lap times, they were
pretty inconsistent. They were kind of all over the place,
which says to me that he is still in the
process of figuring out this bike and how to make
it fast. Now, he was able to make some great
moves on the first lap to put him in position
to be able to take advantage of ver Mean's mistake
then fight past Morbidelli with four to go, and so

(39:44):
it's a great sign that he is starting to be
more effective. And once he can qualify better and then
lay down consistent lap times, well he's gonna be near
the riders at the front. He's proven he can hang
with those guys. He'll be challenging them if he can
get those two things sorted. So yeah, I mean, I'm
on the hype train with Orgey Martin just like everybody else,

(40:07):
just not quite as a board the hype train. I
still think that Marco Bizeki is the premier rider right
now at Aprilia, and he's doing such a good job.
And overall, a three four day for a Prillia considering
what they've been through this year, super super encouraging. Oh
and by the way, interesting side note, so Factory Aprilia

(40:27):
and KTM, they were really strong on Sunday. I mean,
we just talked about Bitzechi and Martin, and of course
Pedro Costa was awesome and Brad Binder had a really
good day. But somehow Factory Dukati and the terrible Pekko
bad Yaya still and I'm saying that sarcastically still beat
everybody on points and it's kind of mind boggling when

(40:49):
you think about it. It's largely due of course to
Mark's general awesomeness. But Dukati scored thirty two points. Factory
Dukati scored thirty two points in this race. Mark was first,
Peka was ninth, as opposed to twenty nine for both Aprilia,
with bez And third and Martin and fourth, and KTM
acost A second and bender and seventh. That's just how
big of an effect Mark Marquez is having on the

(41:12):
sport right now, that even when his teammate is struggling,
he still just picks up the slack and lists the
whole team up to the top when other teams are
doing really well too. But it is good to see
KTM in Aprilia be competitive and close to Ducati on
those points.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Moving on now, Luca Mariini.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
I mean, the writer of the race for Hungary was
Mark Marquez, and that makes sense right rightfully so, but
my vote, my vote went to Luca Mariini. He was
fifth in this one one day after finishing fourth in
the sprint. It was far and away his best weekend
ever on a Honda. And when you think about just
how dismal they've been this season outside of a few

(41:52):
fantastic efforts by Joan Zarco and then one okay one
by Mirror last Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, to
show up with a fourth fifth the weekend, I mean,
that's amazing. And listen, I know they lost out on
the whole Jrae Martin thing, but honestly, I think the
end result of that is actually better because they aren't

(42:14):
in this position now where they pretty much have to
let go of Marini, a guy who has really been
their most consistent rider for like a full calendar year
now and he has real practical experience with the bike.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say
that Luca Marini is going to challenge for a championship
where he's a better option than Jorge Martin. Obviously Martine
is the better option, but it's just the rider.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
And the bike and the situation.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
And that's where I think Marini is very valuable to
Honda because they've got the room to go out and
get Dioga Morrera, which they're very likely going to do,
and that's the type of rider that they need to
focus on because Morera is a future rider, Jorge Martin
is a right now rider, and they don't have a
right now bike, and Luca Marini is the type of

(42:59):
person who can help them get to a right now
bike down the road that Marera can then use to
be competitive. And since Marini is proving to us that
when Honda can give him a bike that is good
at a particular track, he can then make it do
what it's supposed to be capable.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Of at that place.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
That's what they need right now, somebody who will show
them where the measuring stick really is, as opposed to
Jra Martin, who may overperform, or a Fabiocuaccherraro who might
overperform the bike. Marini is going to take it and
do what it can really do. And if you can't
do more, that's fine, it doesn't matter because Honda needs
to know where they're at, and Luca Marini is a

(43:39):
really great rider for showing you where you're at. And
so you know, if he finishes fifth, you've given him
a fifth place bike, and if you're on the podium,
you've given him a podium quality bike. And so, like
I said, it's a good match of team and rider
given both of their situations, for sure, and I thought
it was a great weekend for a Marini and for
me he was the rider of the race. Franko more

(44:00):
Aidelli got beat by Marini at the end of this one,
although I maintain that when he blew that chicane, if
he would have given up fifth spot to Marini right away,
which he knew he was gonna have to do.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
If he would have done it.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Right away, he would have had an extra lap and
a half or so to try to get that spot back.
So he kind of shot himself in the foot there,
but still, given his injury and the lackluster comeback in Austria,
for him to perform the way he did across the
entire weekend, it was great to see and it was
the type of level that we had come to expect

(44:34):
from him prior to that injury at the Saxon Ring.
So excellent weekend for Frankeo Morbidelli and I also want
to talk about Paula Spagro because get this, Get this,
he's run just two rounds, two Moto GP rounds in
twenty twenty five, and in those four races, his average
finish has been ninth, and that's not weighted by any
kind of like rare good performance. It was ninth and

(44:56):
ninth in Bruno, and then tenth in the Hungary Sprint
and eighth in Sunda Moto GP race. And that's from
an average starting spot of twelve point five. And so
here you've got a rider who's thirty four years old,
forced into semi retirement after major injuries back in twenty
twenty three. Running a limited schedule, he's not in like
full on season riding shape, and in this super limited time,

(45:20):
he is still better than half of the Moto GP field.
And there's talk that he had approached Dukati about in
SBK ride next season. That looks like it's already been
announced for eker Lekawona. Somebody, somebody in the World Superbike
Paddock needs to pick up Pola Spagro because as long
as he feels physically capable of doing it, I think

(45:42):
he could do a great job there. The guy can
clearly still ride. So yeah, the factory Dukati thing isn't
gonna happen, But I hope somebody picks him up in
World Superbike and he's successful as a result.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
And who knows.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Jonathan Ray just today as I'm recording this, announced that
he's to retire at the end of the year. Maybe
he takes that seat at Yamaha. I don't know all
of the opportunities right now. And Superbike, I know that
there are options, and man, if he wants the race,
I hope somebody picks him up. And by the way,
Jonathan Ray, you know, we don't talk a lot about
World Superbike anymore, like we used to a long, long

(46:16):
time ago in the show. But I don't even care
that he never came to Moto GP as a full
time rider one of the motorcycle legends. I mean, just
look at the stats and the longevity and what he's
been able to do and what he did for Kawasaki.
I mean, the guy was amazing, is amazing, and I
don't know what's next for him. He said he's not

(46:37):
fully retiring. I don't know what that looks like, but
it's going to be sad to not have him on
the grid. Although at thirty eight years old, you can
understand why he might not want to do it full
time anymore. He's had some injuries lately too. All Right,
So back to Moto GP. Peko Bagnaya salvaged a seventh
in this one, and I do have to admit it
is really weird to say that Peco Bagnay salvaged a

(47:01):
seventh in a race. This is not the Pecco of
a year ago, that's for sure, even if it's not
quite as bad as the commentators want to make it
out to be. I mean, he did finish seventh after all,
and he had a terrible starting spot. On top of that,
Fabio Quatruroro finished tenth in this one after starting sixth,
so he went backwards and remember that was with the
for me and audegher Rek. And while that was the

(47:23):
best Yamaha finish and it's not awful, I expected more
out of a handling bike at a handling track, and
it looks especially bad. What Yamaha did this weekend in
comparison to what Honda's factory team was able to accomplish.
They brought out new parts, they took a step forward.
Yamaha had an opportunity here and they weren't able to

(47:46):
capitalize on it. But the good news, great great news,
is that they have already said that when they get
to San Marino, there is going to be a V
four engine on the grid.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Now it's not going to be in the hands of.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Fabia Quatrraro or any of the other full time riders.
It's going to be a Gusto Fernandez that rides that bike.
But I'll take it, you know. Fabio after this weekend
or during the weekend, was like, I don't even care
if it's slower, I just want to get the V
four out here and start working on it. That is
the right attitude to take, because what are they waiting for?

(48:19):
So what they finish at the back of the pack.
They're already finishing at the back of the pack, and
so use this opportunity to start to move forward since
there are no expectations of competing for a podium right now.
And you know, some people might say, oh, why should
they bother developing this engine? What is it for next year?
And then that's it the rules change. No, they're developing

(48:39):
a V four for the next era. But if they
get it on track now, they can start to hone it.
They can start to maximize the performance and get close
to that level playing field with the other manufacturers. And
they're V fours, and so it doesn't hurt them to
develop a one thousand CCV four only to have to
make it in eight hundreds four after the rule change.

(49:02):
It doesn't matter. Developing that platform now is still very
beneficial to what they're going to do in the future.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
All right.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
So that was Sunday's race. Let's recap both podiums Saturday.
In the sprint, third went to Franco Morbidelli, a double
podium day for VR forty six and a great run
to re establish Frankie. A second was his teammate Fabio
Digi and Antonio after three completely off rounds, this was
a welcome return to the competitive side of the field

(49:29):
for Digitia and then your winner Mark Marquez. Another race
and another convincing victory. Moving on to Sunday and Moto GP,
Marco Pitzeki finishes third man I'll tell you he is
the second best rider in the sport right now. I
don't care what the standings say. Second in this race
went to Pedro Acosta, his best result of the year
and it also solidifies his rapidly improving speed and consistency.

(49:53):
And your winner Mark Marquez an amazing seventh consecutive double
wim weekend, his hen double win of the year. His
victory rate this season so far is at eighty six percent,
not do Kattie's at eighty six percent. Mark's wim rate
is eighty six percent. Of everything he starts, he's on

(50:16):
the top step of the podium. It is absolutely amazing
and it only makes the Moto GP championship picture that
much clear. And things are kind of getting a little
out of hand now. All right, So Mark gets another
big chunk of points on his main rivals. He now
leads his brother Alex by one hundred and seventy five points,
while pecobag Nyaya now trails by two hundred and twenty seven.

(50:41):
I know we'll talk more about Mark in a moment,
because I want to focus on the races that are
right below him, because they're very interesting. And this is
how bad things are getting for Peco Bagnaya right now.
So Alex Marquez had a dismal weekend in the points.
He scored four four points all weekend long, that theoretically
would totally open the door for Bagnia to gain some
serious ground, But in the end, Peco himself only scored seven.

(51:07):
So despite the fact that Alex Marquez was awful, he
only lost three points to Peco Bagnyaya. And despite Alex's
troubles over the past couple of rounds that we just
talked about a few moments ago, he still leads Peco
for second overall by a pretty decent fifty two point margin.
And then the story gets worse when you look immediately

(51:29):
beyond Peco Bagnaya, because Marco Bitzeki sits in fourth right now.
But as we all know, he's running really well right now,
and he has closed that gap to Peco down to
thirty one points. He's inside of a one round margin
right now, and Pedro Acosta moves past Franco Morbidelli into fifth.
He's two hundred and ninety one behind Mark, but sixty

(51:51):
four behind Peco. So Bagnai's third place standing in the
championship is under serious attack right now and by a
pair of riders that are really on fire while he's struggling.
And that is the interesting battle to watch for the
next four or five rounds, not what happens really so
much in second, although that could be a thing with Alex,

(52:12):
but really what happens for third overall in the standings,
and speaking of the next four or five rounds Mark now,
Mark Marquez has an almost five round lead on Alex
Marquez in the championship. It's four point seven to two rounds,
to be exact, and he's up by a full six
rounds over Peco, and there are only eight rounds left

(52:35):
in the year. In fact, Mark has been so epic
this season that with a full eight rounds to go,
there are eight races sixteen points races left to go,
and there are only five other riders that mathematically have
a chance in the championship for real, everybody from seventh

(52:56):
place Fabia Degian Antonio on down have already a initially
been eliminated from the championship. None of them could pass
Mark Marquez, even if Mark packed it all up right
now and went to sit on a beach for the
rest of the year, and to expand on that even more.
The magic number, the cutoff point right now is two
hundred and ninety six points. That's how many points there

(53:16):
are left in the rest of the years, two hundred
ninety six maximum points up for grabs, and fifth place
Pedro Acosta is two hundred and ninety one out. Sixth
place Franco Morbidelli is two hundred and ninety four out,
So it's essentially guaranteed that both of those riders will
be mathematically eliminated in two weeks time at Catalunya, leaving

(53:38):
at most four riders mathematically eligible to win the championship
at that point. But after Catalunya, the magic number is
going to be down to two hundred and fifty nine,
and as the points sit right now, Marco Bitzeki is
two hundred and fifty eight out, and so if Mark
gains even a single point on Bez at Mark's home

(53:59):
track in two weeks, then Bez is out two and
then it's down to Mark, Alex and Peco. Now I
anticipate it's going to take until San Marino for Peco
to be out because he's a little bit closer. And
I'll tell you I'm still pegging Motegi as the clinching
round because Alex has a decent margin on all the

(54:20):
rest of those guys.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
We just mentioned.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
The magic number after Motegi is going to be one
hundred and eighty five. Alex trails Mark right now by
one hundred and seventy five. But if you try to
back that up another round, I don't know that Alex
Marquez is going to have lost forty seven points to
Mark in the next two rounds, but he will have
certainly lost more than ten points to his big brother

(54:44):
in the next three rounds by the end of the
Japanese GP.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
So if you're a huge.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Mark fan and you're like I will go anywhere in
the world to see him win the championship. Right now,
I think the smart money is on a ticket to Motegi.
So the championship is simply a matter of time, but
the battles below still very much not decided. We could
even have contenders for second. Maybe Marco Bitzeki could take
a shot at second. Certainly that battle for third with

(55:11):
Peggobagyay is going to be very very interesting over the
next couple of weeks, and the fight for fifth could
be really really exciting between Acosta, Morbidelli, Digian Antonio and Aldegaer.
All four of those riders right now are only separated
by thirty eight points, with a lot of racing left
to go.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Like I said, two hundred and ninety six points left to.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Take, So there are definitely some battles to watch below Mark.
But when it comes to Mark, they're already engraving in
the name on the trophy right now. So that's the
championship picture. What's my take on this race weekend at
Balaton Park. Well, all I was asking for in this
Hungarian GP debut were a couple of things, action in

(55:53):
the chicanes and some unexpected results, and I think we
got that. Whether it was daring pass back and forth, action,
crazy contact, or riders just washing out the front end.
There was no shortage of action or surprises in those
many many combo corners here, and we got plenty of
unexpected stuff and starting out and qualifying and then the

(56:16):
weird grid stuff and the.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Moto GP race.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
On top of that, we had a VR forty six
double podium, Pedro cost To getting his best result of
the year, Luca Marini looking amazing, Jorge Martin overcoming his
qualifying troubles. There were lots of subplots even if the
main story of Mark being unbeatable didn't change a whole lot.
So as a first swing at this track, I'll take

(56:39):
it and then hope that when we come back next
year that with all the teams having a weekends full
of notes and data, that that makes the racing better
and the back and forth action better as well, and
of course fewer riders in the gravel. So I'll say
the return to Hungary was a success and I'm looking
forward to what we're going to get here next year.
So that's what I thought of the Hungarian GP. What

(56:59):
did you think, Well, you know what to do. Let
me know on Facebook and Reddit. Now our next doubleheader
is less than two weeks away and it's a great
setup for what's happening in the standings right now. We
start on home turf for the Marquez brothers and to
a lesser extent, Pedro a Costa at Catalunya, then turn
right around and go to the home of Bagnyaya Morbidelli

(57:20):
and especially Marco Bitzeki in San Marino, and those two
rounds are going to be very, very interesting because we're
going to see developments in this whole battle amongst the
top five riders, and it is just about going to
seal the deal in Mark Marquez's historic championship run. Plus
on top of that, we are expecting silly season announcements

(57:41):
coming from Honda with the Diogo Morrera situation and Yamaha
almost certainly a Jack Miller announcement in the next couple
of days or the next week or so that we're
going to have to talk about as well. So a
lot of episodes on the way. I don't want you
to miss a single one. If you have not done
it yet, I would highly recommend you subscribe. You can
do that on Apple Podcasts, YouTube podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcherplayer, dot Fm, Spotify, iHeartRadio,

(58:08):
Audible podcasts, just go to your favorite podcasting site. Type
in motoweek you should be able to find the program.
Of course, you can always get all of the latest
episodes as soon as they come out on the website
at motoweek dot net. You can follow on Blue Sky
just search for motoweek, or on Instagram at motoweek USA,
and most importantly, leave your comments. Let me know what

(58:29):
you think of the championship race, let me know your
opinions on Bellaton Park. Anything you want to talk about
you can mentioned on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash
MotorWeek dot net or over on the Reddit sub at
r slash motoweek. And if you do want to support
the program, you don't have to feel obligated, but you
can just head on over to Patreon at patreon dot
com slash motoweek. All right, so until we talk again

(58:52):
just a couple of days from now, let's find out
what happens with all of the silly season news. I
think we're gonna get announcements from both Honda and Yamaha
soon rather than later.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
At least they better because I'm getting tired of waiting.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
So to thank you so much for listening, Ride safe
and I'll talk to you soon.