The afternoon practice session in Hungary began under mostly sunny skies. Most of the riders went out on track straight away to test the grip before attempting their fast laps. This session was crucial, as the top ten riders would go directly into Q2. The majority of the grid chose medium front and soft rear tyres.

Lap times dropped quickly, settling in the 1:40s and even the high 1:39s. Within just five minutes, the early leaderboard showed Marini in front, followed closely by Miller, Bezzecchi, Marc Márquez and Joan Mir. It was already clear that the grip was much improved compared to the morning session, and the riders were able to find more speed straight away. Marc soon moved into the lead, looking confident, with Fermín Aldeguer right behind him and Mir not far off. But even though Marc looked strong, it did not take long before Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jorge Martin and Aldeguer found more pace and pushed him down the order, as lap times began to creep close to the 1:37 mark.

The early stages were lively, with riders constantly trading places and surprising one another. Jorge Martin was looking particularly sharp, as was Joan Mir, while Francesco Bagnaia struggled to get into rhythm and stayed outside the top ten. After the first fifteen minutes, the standings showed Marc Márquez still in control, ahead of Aldeguer, Di Giannantonio, Acosta, Martin, Alex Márquez, Mir, Bastianini, Miller and Bezzecchi.

Pol Espargaró had one of his promising laps deleted for exceeding track limits, but he refused to let that setback slow him down. After a trip back to the pits, he came out again and managed to improve, climbing up to eighteenth place. Aldeguer kept producing excellent laps, though he could not quite get past Marc, who looked comfortable at the front. Even so, Marc’s attempt at another fast lap ended with a mistake in the third sector, and Johann Zarco was also struggling, especially in the final part of the circuit, which kept him from breaking into the top ten.

At the halfway point of the session, the top five order was Marc Márquez leading, followed by Aldeguer, Acosta, Di Giannantonio and Bastianini. Aldeguer then pushed hard again, but ran off track and lost what could have been one of his best laps. With just over twenty minutes remaining, half of the field returned to the pits, and the positions remained unchanged. Soon after, Bezzecchi had a small scare when he ran through the gravel, and then all eyes turned to Pedro Acosta, who put together a superb lap that took him straight into the lead with a time of 1:37.289.

The improvements continued to come thick and fast. Espargaró, who had been near the back, suddenly jumped up to fifth place, giving KTM plenty to cheer about, as most of their riders were now inside the top ten. Acosta continued to look quick and even got close to dipping into the 1:36s. Bagnaia finally managed to get himself into the top ten, but his relief did not last long, as Quartararo immediately pushed him back out. Alex Márquez was also on the move, climbing to third behind his brother Marc, while Bezzecchi briefly returned to the top ten before being knocked out again as the pace kept rising.

With seven minutes to go, the riders came in for a final pit stop before heading out for one last push. The order at that stage showed Acosta still leading, followed by Marc Márquez, Alex Márquez, Morbidelli, Espargaró, Martin, Aldeguer, Mir, Bastianini and Marini. In the closing minutes, Quartararo managed to improve up to fourth place, but was then edged back down by Morbidelli and Marini. Acosta continued to hold onto the lead, Alex Márquez moved up to second, while Marc slipped down to sixth as the tension built heading into the final laps.

The first yellow flag of the session appeared with just two minutes to go, after Acosta lost control and crashed out, but he was not the only rider caught out, as Zarco also went down at Turn 11. Even so, the action was not finished. As the chequered flag came out, Marc Márquez produced one more lap to climb back into second place, just behind Acosta, while his brother Alex sealed third. Bagnaia could not improve and had to settle for thirteenth, while Quartararo gave everything on his last flying attempt and squeezed into tenth, which pushed Martin out of Q2.

At the end of the session, the ten riders moving straight into Q2 were Acosta, Marc Márquez, Alex Márquez, Aldeguer, Bastianini, Morbidelli, Mir, Espargaró, Marini and Quartararo.