MotoGP: Bagnaia and Bezzecchi on form for Ducati/Michelin at Assen

The Motul TT Assen saw Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) beat Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) to collect his 15th win at MotoGP^TM level. Brad Binder was third over the line but a penalty for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider handed the position to Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing). Bagnaia tops the championship standings as the series goes into its summer break.

The Dutch weekend was dominated by graduates of Valentino Rossi's VR46 Riders Academy, with Bezzecchi topping the order in every free practice session before qualifying on pole with a new track lap record (1m31.472s) and winning Saturday's sprint on a combination of hard and soft MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear.

It wasn't quite the perfect weekend for the Italian, however, since Bagnaia ended up being the man to beat in the grand prix itself, having opted for hard and medium MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear as the track temperature soared to almost 50°C.

The defending champion emerged in front on the third of the afternoon's 26 laps and succeeded in maintaining a cushion of around a second to take the victory and go 35 points clear of Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) in the provisional Riders' standings.

That said, it was Binder who got away to the best start to take the lead through Turn 1 from fifth on the grid, aided by the grip and consistency of his soft rear Michelin in spite of the searing heat. He passed the checkered flag in third spot - the same position he had secured in the previous day's sprint race - but a Track Limits penalty dropped him to fourth, promoting Espargaro to the podium's third step in the process.

Martin was fifth after coming out on top of the close scrap that involved Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team), Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team), Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) for the first half of the race.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was a non-starter, and regular front-runners Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing), Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) and Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) all failed to finish.

The exceptionally hot conditions persuaded most of the favorites to combine this season's new hard front MICHELIN Power Slick with the medium rear, exceptions being Binder, Miller and Zarco who went for the soft rear. The hard front and soft rear was the preferred pairing for the sprint race.

Assen was also the fourth port-of-call of the 2023 FIM ENEL MotoE^TM World Championship which saw Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE) claim both races, ahead of series leader Jordi Torres (OpenBank Aspar Team).

Next round: Monster Energy British Grand Prix, Silverstone (August 4-6).