Quartararo dominates Dutch TT with Yamaha 1-2 to extend points lead

Fabio Quartararo cruised to a dominant victory in the Dutch TT at Assen, the series leader heading a Yamaha 1-2 ahead of Maverick Vinales.

Quartararo launched well off the start to jump ahead of pole-sitting team-mate Vinales as he dropped back to fourth, giving the soft-front shod Spaniard plenty of work to do.

Francesco Bagnaia would utilise the power of his Ducati to snatch the early initiative away from Quartararo though, forcing the Frenchman to try and find a way through over the subsequent laps as his M1 looked clearly more agile.

Bagnaia was able to keep the M1 behind though over the next half-a-dozen tours as he blasted back past on the run to Turn 1 as Quartararo passed him multiple times into the final chicane.

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Quartararo finally managed to make a move stick as drove clean underneath Bagnaia’s Desmosedici on the exit of Turn 11, allowing him to build enough of a lead before the home straight to hang on and start building a lead.

He duly did so, pulling out a 4.2 second advantage by the time Vinales finally moved into second after Bagnaia received a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits.

Unleashed into clean air for the first time Vinales started to close down Quartararo’s lead ever so slightly, though started to drop back as the leader began to up his pace once again in the closing tours.

Quartararo therefore took the chequered flag clear of Vinales to extend his points lead heading into the summer break to secure Yamaha’s first 1-2 result of the season.

Joan Mir completed the rostrum for Suzuki after passing Johann Zarco late on, the Pramac racer unable to fend off the far-more agile GSX-RR-allowing the reigning MotoGP world champion to score his third podium result of the season.

Zarco limited the damage to title rival Quartararo well as he bagged solid points for fourth ahead of Miguel Oliveira’s KTM, while Bagnaia managed to fend off the charging Aleix Espargaro and Marc Marquez across the closing circulations to come home sixth.

Marquez made a lightning start to rise from 20^th on the grid to 13^th on the opening lap before calmly working his way through the riders ahead across the rest of the encounter to run seventh with only a few tours to go, though was passed by Aleix at the final chicane with just a few miles left of the contest.

The Aprilia man pushed hard to try and grab Bagnaia but would ultimately come up short, even losing out to Marquez once again as the duo came home seventh and eighth.

Takaaki Nakagami ended up a disappointing ninth after challenging for a rostrum position across the opening half of the race, the LCR Honda pilot pushing Bagnaia hard for second before being shuffled back by the chasing pack.

Vinales managed to pass him first of all before Zarco and Mir took advantage of the off-kilter RC213-V racer, while a mistake soon after saw him drop all the way back to his eventual ninth place finishing position ahead of the second factory Honda of Pol Espargaro.

Alex Rins recovered well to 11^th after being pushed into the gravel by Zarco early on, the Suzuki man dropping to the rear of the field before fighting back through ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder in 12^th.

Title contender Jack Miller crashed out from eighth at Turn 5 just past half-distance, and although he re-joined the action he would later retire with a technical problem.

Valentino Rossi crashed out while trying to recover from a slow start that dropped him to the back early on, although team-mate Garrett Gerloff at least had something to smile about as he beat Luca Marini for 17^th in his premier class debut as the injured Franco Morbidelli’s replacement.

Quartararo’s series lead now stands at 34 over Zarco ahead of the Austrian double-header at the Red Bull Ring in five weeks time, with Bagnaia moving back into third overall but now a distant 47 points adrift of the leading Yamaha.