MotoGP Hungarian GP: Dominant Pedro Acosta tops Friday Practice by over four tenths

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Pedro Acosta put together a commanding performance in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday, beating VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio by more than four tenths of a second.

The factory KTM rider set a best time of 1m36.827s towards the end of the hour-long session, having first moved to the top just before the halfway point.

Di Giannantonio’s late flyer promoted him to second, while Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez led the way for Aprilia in third.

At the start of the session, Gresini sophomore Fermin Aldeguer immediately opted for the soft rear tyre, usurping Marc Marquez’s FP1 benchmark of 1m38.626s on his first flying lap.

The 21-year-old improved further to a 1m38.162s minutes later, putting four tenths between him and Acosta.

Factory Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi brought the deficit down to 0.013s during his medium tyre run, but it wasn’t until Acosta switched to softs that Aldeguer was dispatched from the top.

Around 25 minutes into the session, the KTM rider moved the goalposts with the first sub-1m38s lap of the day, before posting an improved time of 1m38.418s to cement his position at the front.

Both Bezzecchi and Marquez managed to break into the 1m37s bracket, the latter impressively on used mediums, but Acosta remained half a second clear of the chasing pack at the halfway point in practice.

All riders switched to new soft rear tyres in the final quarter of the session, as the race for a direct entry into Q2 began.

Aldeguer closed the gap to Acosta to just 0.022s on his penultimate run, before Fernandez claimed the top spot for Trackhouse with three minutes remaining.

However, Acosta immediately responded to Fernandez’s time to open the gap back up to half a second as the clock ticked to zero.

The KTM rider eventually the day 0.413s clear of the rest of the field, with Ducati’s lead points scorer di Giannantonio ending up as his closest challenger in third.

Fernandez finished another half a tenth adrift in third, with Aldeguer holding on to fourth aboard the Gresini Ducati.

Fernandez’s team-mate Ai Ogura showed vastly improved pace on Friday to finish fifth, leading the factory Aprilia of Bezzecchi.

Having topped the opening practice, Marc Marquez secured a safe passage into Q2 with the seventh-fastest time of the day, although he did suffer an off-track excursion late in the session.

LCR rookie Diogo Moreira was again the fastest rider for Honda, ending up eighth ahead of the factory Aprilia of 2024 champion Jorge Martin.

Meanwhile, Pramac’s Jack Miller sneaked into Q2 by just a tenth of a second, beating the factory Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo to 10th place.

The two were closely followed by Toprak Razgatlioglu on other M1, with Luca Marini in 13th on the works Honda.

Two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia endured a difficult day at Balaton Park, ending up 14th quickest after his best flying lap was affected by a major moment into the final chicane.

Further back, MotoGP returnee Iker Lecuona finished 17th for Gresini, while LCR’s Cal Crutchlow propped up the 22-bike field.