MotoGP Race And Practice Results

After an overcast early morning at the Cathedral, the sun eventually decided to attend the lightweight class race and was rewarded with a last lap rollercoaster that saw Ayumu Sasaki claim a maiden victory in the world championship. The poleman had to contend with a nearly impeccable Izan Guevara for 22 laps but won a close fight to give a precious birthday gift to the team boss. Speaking of birthdays, Guevara would have liked to go one better to celebrate his upcoming 18th birthday, but the youngster had to settle for second place – and a pretty lucky one, after starting the final lap down in fifth position. Even luckier was teammate Sergio Garcia, who suddenly found himself on the final step of the podium after a subdued race spent mostly at the back of the leading group.

Although the podium line-up might not look too unusual, with the poleman and the championship leaders, it does not tell the whole story of the 22-lap race. It was rookie David Muñoz who stole the show off the line, but Tatsuki Suzuki was quick to retrieve the lead into turn one from Muñoz, Sasaki, Guevara and Dennis Foggia. Suzuki was under attack from Sasaki and Guevara by the end of the second lap and the Spaniard took control of proceedings at the GT chicane, while teammate Garcia made some quick progress from 18th on the grid to join the top 10 after the first couple of laps.

Once Guevara took the lead, there weren’t many challenges coming his way for the next few laps, despite having a 16-man group lined up behind him – partly because of several yellow flags waving around in the early stages of the race. While Guevara was still waiting for a challenger, a leading group of six eventually separated at the front, including Suzuki, Sasaki, Jaume Masia, Muñoz and Foggia, although the Italian didn’t last there much longer, being served with a long lap penalty for shortcutting the final chicane and dropping to 13th position going into the second half of the race. Meanwhile, Garcia was stuck around seventh position and had dropped almost a second behind the leading group by lap 10, but luckily for him, John McPhee and Xavier Artigas soon picked up the lead of the chasing pack and did all the hard work in closing the gap to the leader, bringing Garcia and Foggia with them. Unfortunately for Garcia, the Italian easily found a way past him and the Spaniard did not seem to have the speed to respond or challenge the men ahead.

Back at the front, Guevara seemed untroubled while Muñoz was kept busy by the Sterilgarda Max Racing duo of Sasaki and McPhee and with the Leopard pair close behind. Masia, Artigas and Garcia were still part of the leading group but going a bit under the radar with 8 laps to go, with the chasing group over three seconds behind. Garcia benefitted once more from Foggia’s misfortune with 5 laps to go, when the Italian climbed the kerbs on the exit of turn one, as he got overtaken by Muñoz and lost control, crashing out of the podium battle.

In the battle for victory, Sasaki seemed to be the keenest to attack Guevara but the Spaniard was showing off with his defensive lines, so the first real attack had to wait until the final three laps, when Sasaki overtook at turn five. Guevara tried to hit back straight away at turn six and that started an overtaking bonanza for the next couple of laps, the duo trading places several times over the course of each lap. Once Sasaki settled the score with Guevara, the rest of the group started to get involved and the Spaniard was soon under attack from Suzuki, Masia and Muñoz, dropping to fifth by the start of the final lap.

Suzuki gave his compatriot some trouble on that last lap but could not stop Sasaki from securing a maiden victory. The Leopard Racing rider could not even hold onto the podium in the late drama that saw Muñoz losing the front at turn nine and taking Masia out of the podium battle, with McPhee sliding out just behind them, in a separate incident. That suddenly left the Aspar boys in podium contention, both of them attacking Suzuki in the final few corners, with Garcia crossing the finish line only seven thousandths of a second ahead of the Japanese rider. Artigas scores a top five finish, with Dani Holgado recovering from a couple of long lap penalties to take sixth, aided by a last lap incident at turn eight for Adrian Fernandez and Joel Kelso. Stefano Nepa, Ryusei Yamanaka, Deniz Öncü and Kaito Toba completed the remaining top 10 positions.

Garcia’s serendipitous podium keeps him in the lead of the world championship, but teammate Guevara closes in to only three points, with Foggia’s deficit growing to 67 points.

Results:

The MotoE cup provided the first racing entertainment of the weekend at Assen, and it delivered a solid doze of adrenaline over eight hard-fought laps. Poleman Dominique Aegerter didn’t have it all his own way as Matteo Ferrari robbed him off the line, while Mattia Casadei ran wide at the first corner and dropped to fifth, behind the LCR duo of Eric Granado and Miquel Pons. By the end of the opening lap, Ferrari, Aegerter and Granado looked like they were extending a gap at the front but the chasing group were not keen to let them go and Casadei made a quick comeback into contention.

Granado was the standout performer by lap four, finding a way past both Aegerter and Ferrari at turn 15 in consecutive laps, leaving the two to keep each other busy. Aegerter attacked Ferrari at the final chicane and the Italian attempted to retaliate at the first corner but instead ran wide and dropped to fifth place for the final trio of laps, promoting Casadei and Marc Alcoba into the podium battle.

The penultimate lap brought Aegerter back to the front of the field for the first time since they lined up on the grid, but going three-wide into turn seven saw Casadei come out on top. A near tangle between Aegerter and Granado made the Brazilian lose touch with the leaders ahead of the final lap, leaving Casadei and Aegerter to battle it out for the win. The Swiss rider attacked at turn five but a mistake on the exit dropped him back behind the Italian, however, the moment did not seem to unsettle him in the slightest, Aegerter back on Casadei’s tail to make one last attack at the final chicane.

Aegerter took the chequered flag eight hundredths of a second ahead of Casadei and the Italian’s frustration out the final corner allowed Granado back into contention to steal second away by nine thousandths of a second. With Alcoba taking a fast tumble at turn 15 on the final lap, Ferrari took fourth unchallenged, ahead of Hector Garzo and Pons, while Bradley Smith and Jordi Torres both made the top 10 on their return from injury.

Aegerter’s victory adds some more points to his advantage in the world cup standings, now 34 points ahead of Granado and 42 over Ferrari, with Casadei 58 points back.

Results:

Premier class qualifying got underway with a sense of urgency, even more than usual, with darkening cloud cover gathering over the Dutch circuit. However, rain never made a significant appearance and the enthusiastic crowds got to see Pecco Bagnaia secure back-to-back pole positions with a new all-time lap record around Assen. The Italian could even afford to sit out the final couple of minutes of Q2 without anyone being able to retaliate. Fabio Quartararo did manage to close the gap to one tenth of a second, but his final flying lap was compromised by a moment at turn five and the world champion had to settle for second on the grid. Jorge Martin was the early pacesetter, the youngster attacking the lap record straight out the gates but eventually dropping to third, not helped by a late tumble at turn five.

The Ducati deja-vu continued on the second row of the grid, where Marco Bezzecchi and Jack Miller sandwiched Aleix Espargaro. The impressive rookie ended the session less than three tenths of a second off pole and ahead of title contender Espargaro, while Miller could not improve on sixth following a late tumble at turn three and with another penalty possibly incoming, for impeding Maverick Viñales on his final flying lap.

Johann Zarco adds a Ducati to the third row of the grid as well, ahead of Q1 graduate Miguel Oliveira and a subdued Alex Rins, while Q1 leader Brad Binder shares fourth row with Viñales and the lonely Honda of Takaaki Nakagami. The factory KTMs looked like the overwhelming favourites throughout Q1, so the likes of Luca Marini, Joan Mir and Fabio Di Giannantonio had to settle for a fifth row start, with Mir also joining the generous crash list at turn five.

Q1 got off to a pretty disastrous start for Enea Bastianini, who abandoned his machine with a technical issue just after exiting pitlane and having to jog back to his garage. Although the Italian was able to rejoin for the final half of Q1, the best he could do on his second machine was to match his teammate and start 16th, opening sixth row in the rather unfamiliar company of Andrea Dovizioso and Stefan Bradl.

Results: