Francesco Bagnaia won the Dutch Grand Prix in the MotoGP class yesterday at the classic in Assen, celebrating his third win of the season. The Italian, who started from pole position, set the tone from the first meter, was not deterred by light rain in the second half of the race and achieved a start-finish success in the last race before the summer break. World champion and championship leader Fabio Quartararo fell twice and was eliminated.
Marco Bezzecchi, who was promoted from the Moto2 class this season, made the double success for Italy and for the Ducati brand perfect with his first placing in the top three as a MotoGP rider. The podium was completed by the Spaniard Maverick Vinales on Aprilia.
Quartararo fell after just four laps. The Frenchman, who had won the last two Grands Prix, fell on Yamaha while trying to pass second-placed Aleix Espargaro on Aprilia. Quartararo continued despite a badly damaged bike, which wasn’t a good decision. He fell again, a lot harder this time, and returned to the team box with a limp. He later gave the all-clear and said self-critically: “It wasn’t necessary to make such a maneuver so early on. I’ll learn from the mistakes.”
In the World Championship standings he is still 21 points ahead of Espargaro. The Spaniard, who was so strong this year, fought his way up to fourth place after colliding with Quartararo, then going into the gravel trap and falling back in the field. Behind him, among others, were KTM riders Brad Binder (South Africa) in fifth and Miguel Oliveira (Portugal) in ninth.
Kalex rider Augusto Fernandez drew level with Celestino Vietti by winning Moto2 in the world championship. The German Marcel Schrötter, who was temporarily leading the race, fell. Moto3 went to Japanese Husqvarna rider Ayumu Sasaki, while Sergio Garcia (GasGas) claimed his championship lead in third place.
Six weeks break
The Assen event is now followed by the summer break, which is quite long at six weeks due to the renewed cancellation of the Finland premiere, which was actually planned for July 10th. It only continues on August 7th with the World Championship race from Great Britain in Silverstone. Incidentally, Quartararo has to complete a long lap penalty there, which the Assen jury subsequently charged him with for his behavior in the race.
Motorcycle World Championship
GP of the Netherlands in Assen: MotoGP: 1st Bagnaia (It) Ducati 40:25.205 minutes, 2nd Bezzecchi (It) Ducati +0.444s, 3rd Viñales (Sp) Aprilia 1.209, 4th A. Espargaro (Sp) Aprilia 2.585, 5th binder (Rsa) KTM 2.721; Eliminated among others: Quartararo (Fra) Yamaha after crash; World Championship status (11/20): 1st Quartararo 172 points, 2nd Espargaro 151, 3rd Zarco (Fra) Ducati 114; further: 6. Binder 93.