Nicolo Bulega extended his advantage in the 2023 WorldSSP Championship standings with his third win of the season at Assen after a comprehensive sprint to the flag.

A double race winner at the Phillip Island opener, Bulega started from pole position and despite losing the hole-shot to Federico Caricasulo at Turn 1, he returned to the lead by the end of the opening lap.

From here Bulega was untouchable, resisting the attentions of Puccetti Kawasaki’s Can Oncu for the opening few laps before moving clear as the Turk began to fade.

Easing his advantage out to more than four seconds at the flag, Bulega’s third victory in five races sees him extend his overall advantage out to 42 points over Stefano Manzi, who could only recover to fifth place after starting eighth.

Behind a dominant Bulega, the fight for second went right down to the wire with a hard charging Marcel Schroetter hunting down and passing home favourite Glenn van Straalen on the final lap to get the jump for second coming into the Geert Timmer chicane, earning MV Agusta its best result of the season so far.

Despite missing out on second, van Straalen was able to hold onto third place to bring some joy to the large Dutch crowd, the EAB Yamaha just a tenth up on Valentin Debise in fourth and Manzi in fifth.

Having led following his bright start, Caricasulo was bullied down to sixth on the Althea Ducati, while Oncu was also one to fade having run strongly early on in seventh.

Yari Montella came home in eighth place in his first race back from an injury sustained at Phillip Island, ahead of Raffaele de Rosa in ninth and Jorge Navarro in tenth.

Outside the top ten, Bahattin Sofuoglu was 11th from top Triumph rider Niki Tuuli, while Adrian Huertas, Andrea Mantovani and Tom Booth-Amos - making his season debut at Assen on the Motozoo Kawasaki - rounded out the points’ paying positions.

Elsewhere, Tarran Mackenzie and Harry Truelove came home 20th and 21st, the pair split by just under a tenth, but there was disappointment for John McPhee after he crashed out of 21st on lap four.

WorldSSP Race 1 Results - Assen