The Yamaha rider crashed on the fifth lap of the race at Assen while trying to overtake Aprilia’s Espargaro on the inside of Turn 5. Quartararo lost the front and slid into Espargaro, who was forced onto the gravel and lost over eight seconds as he re-joined in 15th. Points leader Quartararo also remounted, but […]
Espargaro jumped Quartararo at the start when the Yamaha rider ran wide into Turn 2, with the former moving up to second. After a brief battle went the way of Espargaro through Turns 5 and 6, Quartararo spent the next three tours stalking the Aprilia rider before launching another attack into Turn 5 on lap […]
Coming into the Assen weekend 91 points behind Quartararo after two successive DNFs, Bagnaia’s title hopes were boosted by an early crash for Quartararo that also forced Aleix Espargaro off track. Taking Ducati’s first Assen win since 2008, Bagnaia’s lights-to-flag victory from pole puts him 66 points behind Quartararo going into the summer break. Poleman […]
As first reported by Autosport earlier in the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, outgoing Suzuki rider Rins is nearing a deal with Honda to join LCR next season on factory machinery. This was coming at the expense of Marquez’s place at LCR, with team boss Lucio Cecchinello all but confirming on Friday at Assen that the […]
Soaking conditions greeted the riders at the start of the first 45-minute practice of the Assen weekend, with forecasts looking unsettled for the three days. Despite the miserable conditions, the track was a hive of activity early on as most headed out to get some wet running under their belts. Suzuki’s Mir set the initial […]
With the threat of rain looming over the Assen circuit when the pole shootout got underway, the lap record was immediately beaten by Pramac’s Jorge Martin before Bagnaia streaked clear in the closing stages to claim back-to-back pole positions. Martin’s early benchmark of 1m31.708s on his first lap put him underneath Maverick Vinales’ lap record […]
The Australian crashed at the Turn 5 hairpin in the closing stages of Saturday’s Q2 pole shootout session at Assen. Having remounted to ride his bike back to pitlane, Miller was riding slowly on the racing line on the back straight exiting Turn 5 when Aprilia’s Vinales was coming through on his final time attack […]
Despite the threat of rain hanging over the Assen circuit on Saturday afternoon, the pole shootout session began with red hot pace as Pramac’s Jorge Martin set a new lap record of 1m31.708s. But factory Ducati counterpart Bagnaia smashed this with just over four minutes of Q2 remaining to claim his fourth pole of the […]
The Spaniard injured his ribs in a heavy crash in FP1 at the Sachsenring last weekend, and ultimately retired from the race due to the pain. He had hoped to be better for this weekend’s Dutch GP but, after ending Friday 19th overall, he said the pain he was experiencing was much worse than expected and […]
The damp and rainy conditions of Friday had given way for the start of the first fully dry session of the Assen weekend in FP3. It would take just nine minutes for Francesco Bagnaia’s best lap from the drying FP2 session on Friday to be toppled, with Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales making the first move. Last […]