Ducati double win over Asen, Quartararo crash twice

Francesco Bagnaia won the Dutch Grand Prix in the MotoGP class yesterday in 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 undeterred by light rain in the second half of the race and had a successful start in the last race before the summer break. World champion and championship leader Fabio Quartararo fell twice and was eliminated.

Marco Pizzi, upgraded from the Moto2 class this season, has achieved double success for Italy and the exemplary Ducati brand with a top-three finish as a MotoGP rider. The podium was completed by Spaniard Maverick Vinales in Aprilia.

Quartararo fell after just four laps. The Frenchman, who has won his last two Grand Prix races, fell to a Yamaha while trying to overtake second-placed Alex Espargaro in Aprilia. Quartararo continued despite the bike being badly damaged, which was not a good decision. He fell again, with even more force this time, and returned to the team box with a limp. Later he gave all clarity and said self-deprecatingly: “It was not necessary to make such a maneuver so soon. I will learn from the mistakes.”

In the world championship standings, he is still ahead of Espargaro by 21 points. The Spaniard, who has been very strong this year, worked his way up to fourth after hitting Quartaro, then got into the gravel trap and fell again on the field. Behind him, among others, were KTM riders Brad Bender (South Africa) in fifth and Miguel Oliveira (Portugal) in ninth.

Calix rider Augusto Fernandez tied Celestino Fetti with a moto 2 win at the World Championships. German Marcel Schrötter, who was temporarily leading the race, fell. Moto3 went to Japanese Husqvarna rider Ayumu Sasaki, while Sergio Garcia (GasGas) took the championship lead in third.

Six weeks break

The Assen event now follows the summer break, which is quite long at six weeks due to the renewed cancellation of the Finland premiere, which was already planned for July 10. It only continues on August 7 with the World Championship race from Great Britain at Silverstone. Incidentally, Quartararo has to complete a long penalty kick there, which the Assen jury later handed to him for his racing behavior.

MotoGP World Championship

Grand Prix 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 crashing; World Championship Mode (11/20): 1 Quartararo 172 points, 2nd Espargaro 151, 3 Zarco (Fra) Ducati 114; Also: 6. Binder 93.