Marco Bezzecchi continued his steamroller of the MotoGP field at Assen as he secured a comfortable victory in the Dutch TT sprint race ahead of Francesco Bagnaia.
The Italian had to do it the hard way though after dropping to third off the start behind Bagnaia as well as an aggressive Brad Binder, who slid through to second in the opening corners.
Bezzecchi was quick to react though as he soon snatched back the runners-up spot at the end of the second tour before swiftly turning his attentions to Bagnaia, the VR46 racer gobbling up the time difference between the pair in just over a lap.
Keen to not waste any time, Bezzecchi went side by side with his compatriot through the opening sequence of corner before getting a superior exit from Turn 5 and getting the move for the lead finally completed as he swept across the front of the factory Ducati on the exit of Turn 7.
From this point on Bezzecchi firmly stamped his authority on the half-distance encounter as he managed the gap to the end of the race to secure his first ever sprint race success by 1.294s over Bagnaia – who extended his points lead over Jorge Martin in the process.
Binder took the chequered flag third having withstood the pressure from a chasing Fabio Quartararo during the closing stanza of the outing, though the South African was subsequently dropped to fifth in the final classification after picking up a long-lap penalty for a track limits infringement on the final lap – the punishment being converted to a three-second time drop.
This meant Quartararo secured his first rostrum result since finishing third in April’s Americas Grand Prix, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro also picked up a place to take fourth ahead of Binder.
Martin ended up a distant sixth after fading in the latter stages having made good progress early on from tenth on the grid, while Maverick Vinales was seventh on his Aprilia despite making a sluggish start that saw him drop as far back as 12th on the opening tour – the Spaniard getting the better of front-row starter Luca Marini towards the back-end of the contest.
Enea Bastianini initially claimed ninth less than a tenth-of-a-second behind Marini, though the latter received a post-race half-a-second penalty for track limits – elevating Bastianini to eighth and Gresini’s Alex Marquez to ninth and into the final points position – leaving Marini with nothing in tenth.
Takaaki Nakagami ended up a Honda’s highest finisher in 12th just behind the struggling sister KTM of Jack Miller, while Pramac’s Johann Zarco fell outside of the top ten late on to 13th.
Marc Marquez had another tough outing on his factory Honda as he crossed the line 17th despite nearly making it into the top ten in the early goings, the six-time premier class champion falling behind even wildcarding Aprilia pilot Lorenzo Savadori in the end.
Miguel Oliveira looked good to fight for a top ten result after making a strong start though in the end fell to 19th just behind RNF Aprilia team-mate Raul Fernandez, while Iker Lecuona made further progress with the Honda RC213V to secure 20th ahead of GasGas’ Jonas Folger and LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl.
Fabio Di Gianantonio was the only rider that failed to make it to the chequered flag, the Gresini racer crashing out at around a thirds distance while battling within the top 15.
