Result and summary of the 250cc race at Assen:
Hiroshi Aoyama took victory in the 250cc race at Assen, though only after surviving a penultimate lap collision with Alvaro Bautista. Marco Simoncelli had led early on, with Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista and Hiroshi Aoyama behind, Aoyama having worked his way forward early on. But it was clear that Simoncelli was holding the riders behind up, and on lap 16, the inevitable happened and first Bautista, and then Aoyama went through, the Spaniard at the fast Hoge Heide kink, the Japanese rider at the GT chicane. A few corners later, Aoyama dived underneath Bautista to take the lead at the Strubben hairpin, and was away.
Bautista worked at shaking off Simoncelli, who put up some cursory resistance, but Bautista was soon past and back with Aoyama. The two riders soon gapped Simoncelli, who was left to deal with Hector Barbera. For the remaining laps, Aoyama looked comfortable through the first half of the track, but as they ran through the fast final sector, Bautista kept closing and looking for a way past, for use in the last couple of laps.
As they headed through the section for the penultimate time, Aoyama changed his line slightly while Bautista was closer than ever. The Spaniard ran into the back of the Japanese rider, smashing his front wheel and crashing out of contention, leaving Aoyama to go on to take a comfortable win.
Hector Barbera came home 2nd, but not after some controversy of his own. Barbera had past Simoncelli on lap 20, diving through at the GT chicane, and two laps later, Simoncelli tried to come back into the Haarbocht, the first corner at the end of the front straight. Barbera was having none of it, and ran Simoncelli wide and off the track, leaving Simoncelli to settle for 3rd.
