Francesco Bagnaia cruised to MotoGP Sprint victory in Assen with a dominant win, leading from start to finish in comfortable fashion.
Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales rounded off the podium to finish in their respective qualifying positions.
Pole-sitter Bagnaia catapulted off the line to lead into Turn 1 with Martin a few bike lengths behind.
Martin had a tank slapper into the second sector which enabled Bagnaia to gain an advantage.
The Gresini brothers of Alex and Marc Marquez climbed to third and fifth, respectively, but on the second lap in Turn 2, the older brother took his year-old Ducati hard onto the kerbs and crashed out of the race.
An abrupt end to the race for the championship contender and Gresini’s woes continued as his brother was overtaken in the final two corners by Maverick Vinales who regained his third place back on Lap 3.
Brad Binder launched his KTM bike up the grid from a lustre ninth-placed qualifying, and by the end of Lap 4 rose up to fifth and was ready to pounce on the Gresini rider.
Luca Marini’s Repsol Honda bike had issues forcing the Italian into the pits due to what appeared to be engine issues on Lap 5, with Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori crashing out later that same lap.
Enea Bastianini’s aim to reduce the championship gap between him and Marquez saw him complete an overtake on Aleix Espargaro on Lap 7 to put himself in sixth.
On Lap 9 Bastianini pounced on an open door by Binder in Turn 5 to elevate himself up to fifth, before completing a last-minute overtake in the final chicane on Marquez for fourth later that same lap.
Alex Rins’ misery in 2024 continued with a crash in Turn 5 as he fell from 16th place.
Alex Marquez and Raul Fernandez were penalised with long lap penalties for exceeding track limits on three separate occasions, but the former chose not to take his which resulted in a few places demotion.
Fabio Di Giannantonio slotted his bike past Marquez at the chicane on the penultimate lap to claim fifth.
Aleix Espargaro had a heavy fast-paced crash in the final sector after crashing out from sixth and was lucky was not be stretchered off.
Bagnaia’s Sprint win continues his imperious form heading into Sunday’s race, as he established a 2.3s advantage over Martin, who made the most in what appears to be a damage-limitation weekend for him with regards to the championship.
Vinales and Bastianini secured third and fourth finishes with Di Giannantonio rounding off the top five.
Binder’s sixth-place finish puts him as the clear KTM rider for this weekend’s proceedings so far, as Marquez finished closely behind.
Fabio Quartararo gained five places to finish in eighth to the delight of his Yamaha team, with Franco Morbidelli finishing in the final point-scoring position.
Pedro Acosta completed the top-10 in a photo finish with Marco Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveria behind.
Nearly three seconds behind was Jack Miller who secured 13th, followed by Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir.
GasGas Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez edged out Johann Zarco for 15th, despite late pressure from Raul Fernandez who had to take the long lap penalty.
Taakaki Nakagami finished five seconds adrift of the trio, and Alex Rins was able to bring the bike home despite his crash as he rounded off the classification.
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