Reigning MotoGP World Champion has extended his winning streak to eight at Assen this afternoon in a tricky race that started wet but dried out, necessitating a change of bikes on lap seven under flag-to-flag rules.
A massive downpour just minutes before the start saw frantic tyre decisions made before the lights went out with most opting for wets. Valentino Rossi made a late decision to switch from slicks and had to start from pitlane while the pack streamed away with Marquez leading from Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone.
Dovizioso used the Ducati’s wet prowess to pass the Repsol Honda man early on but they swapped twice on the opening lap as poleman Aleix Espargaro made his way through to fourth and Cal Crutchlow hunted down Jorge Lorenzo for sixth, which he took on lap three and then passed Iannone a lap later.
The first riders came in to change bikes with 22 to go. Michael Laverty in first but his second bike wasn’t ready so he had to go back out again on chewed wets. Team-mate Broc Parkes also started from pitlane on slicks but stayed out to battle with Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista for most of the race.
Marquez was first of the front-runners in, followed by Dovizioso, Espargaro and Pedrosa but it was Marquez and Dovizioso who were out first and they pulled a substantial gap on the scrap for third and fourth.
Jorge Lorenzo was handed top spot ahead of Hiro Aoyama and Nicky Hayden but the Spaniard left it too late to change and slipped down the order, looking like he didn’t have any fight as Movistar Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi also switched, nearly running over technician Brent Gladwin in the process, and got the hammer down to put in very fast lap to make his way through.
As the rest of the pack came into change, Dovizioso took advantage of a mistake from Marquez, who ran off track, to open a four-second lead as the track continued to dry but the inevitable happened and Marquez hunted him down and took the lead with ten laps to go, crossing the line with a near seven-second margin.
Pedrosa and Aleix Espargaro had a race-long scrap for third place but the Forward NGM rider’s soft rear tyre gave up with eight laps left and Pedrosa passed and gapped him to the tune of eight seconds as they crossed the line.
Rossi came back to fifth place with some incredible laptimes and towed along Iannone for sixth place. Both Bautista and Britain’s Bradley Smith passed Crutchlow late on and the Monster Yamaha man only missed out on seventh place by one tenth of a second.
Stefan Bradl passed Broc Parkes for tenth in the dying laps whole Scott Redding ended as top production Honda despite starting from pitlane. Michael Laverty’s early problem saw him slip down to 21st place.
