RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP hungry for Hungarian success at Balaton Park
This upcoming weekend the fourteenth Grand Prix of 2025 will take place at the Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary. It will be the first time that this circuit appears on the MotoGP calendar and the first time since 1992 that a Grand Prix is held in Hungary. No official test days have been run prior to this Hungarian Grand Prix, which means many things remain unknown.
With a length of just 4.075 kilometers, the Balaton Park Circuit is the second shortest track on the current Grand Prix calendar. The circuit features ten left-hand corners and seven right-hand corners, with the longest straight measuring 665 meters. As the name suggests, the track is located near the famous Lake Balaton, adding a new attraction to the already popular tourist area. In addition, the Hungarian capital Budapest is only an hour’s drive away.
Ayumu Sasaki arrives at the Balaton Park Circuit in good form, having scored points in three of the last four races. After a difficult start to the season, the Japanese rider is now consistently finishing inside the top fifteen of the highly competitive Moto2 field. Teammate Zonta van den Goorbergh has endured a few difficult weekends since his home race at the TT Circuit Assen, meaning he and the team will be working hard this weekend to turn things around.
- The race weekend at the Balaton Park Circuit begins with the first free practice session on Friday morning, followed by the official practice session at 14:05 in the afternoon. This session determines which fourteen riders will progress directly into Q2.
- After a second free practice session on Saturday morning, qualifying will begin at 13:40 in the afternoon to decide the starting grid.
- The 22-lap race will start on Sunday at 12:15 in the afternoon.
Zonta van den Goorbergh:
“After a weekend in Austria with quite a few problems, we immediately get back to work in Hungary. For almost everyone this is a new track, which always makes things interesting. It will be important to solve the problems from last weekend as quickly as possible so that we can get more out of the coming weekend. I’m looking forward to starting the race weekend!”Ayumu Sasaki:
“I am very excited to ride at Balaton Park, it looks like a very cool track. It is very different compared to the other circuits we go to, so I am looking forward to go there. Let’s continue our positive trend, although there are still things to improve. We are on the right path so we’ll keep working, and hopefully we can score some more points and maybe even go for a top-ten finish.”Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team tanager:
“We’re going to a new circuit again, which always brings a lot of question marks. The World Superbike Championship was here last month, so we’ve been able to get a small idea of what to expect, but once you’re there yourself it’s always different. The track looks good, although you do hear some complaints here and there about the many chicanes. We’ll approach it with a fresh mindset, and the riders will have to do their best to learn the track quickly and adapt to it. Ayumu is in a good flow and we have to build on that, while Zonta has been in a difficult situation in recent races. In Austria, several technical issues played a part in that, so we’ll work hard to fix those so that he can return to the positions where he belongs.”