Bagnaia goes back to back at Assen

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia remains the man to beat after a strong ride to back to back Dutch TT victories.

Bagnaia led 24 of the 26 laps to take a commanding 1.2s win over Sprint victor Marco Bezzecchi to extend his championship lead to 35 points ahead of the summer break.

Brad Binder was third, but a post race track limits penalty saw a podium place snatched away for the second time in as many days.

This handed third to the gritty Aleix Espargaro, who despite carrying significant bodywork damage, carried his Aprilia to third after holding off Jorge Martin by just 0.09s.

In what was a war of attrition in the hottest conditions of the season just 14 of the 22 riders reached the finish with Jack Miller the first to fall.

For the second Sunday in a row, Marc Marquez withdrew due to injury after another crashed-filled weekend.

It was an even start between Bezzecchi and Bagnaia on the front row, but it was Binder, who had the ultimate getaway from the second row.

The South African had three Ducatis to beat, but that did not stop him from taking the lead on the inside into Turn 1.

Clean start as Fabio Quartararo struggled and slipped out of the 10 with Miller climbing from 12th to eighth.

However, the Australian’s promising progress only lasted one lap as he lost the front end and crashed out at the second tour of the first turn.

A two-horse race was established between Binder and Bagnaia with Bezzecchi in third ahead of Esparagaro and Luca Marini.

As Bagnaia wrestled the lead from Binder, the two Frenchmen of Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco took each other out.

At the high speed Turn 6 Quartararo lost control of his Yamaha mid corner and with Zarco on his rear tyre the Pramac rider had nowhere to go and the pair crashed simultaneously.

The Yamaha rider, who sustained a pre-event toe injury whilst jogging, looked in a bad way after the crash and hobbled his way to the medical centre. 

Maverick Vinales became the fourth rider in as many laps to fall, this time crashing from fifth at Turn 7.

By Lap 5 Bezzecchi closed the gap to join Bagnaia and Binder in the fight for the lead, while his teammate Marini dropped from fifth to ninth in the final chicane.

Enea Bastianini joined the long list of retirements, crashing from eighth at the slow speed Turn 4, a mistake Fabio Di Giannatonio would later repeat.

Miguel Oliveira ran wide in the final sector to slip out of the 10 and it soon became clear he was enduring issues as he retired. 

Iker Lecuona soon joined him also with mechanical battles on his Repsol Honda.

With 10 laps to go the battle for the lead had settled down as Bagnaia opened a 0.7s lead over Binder, who was now under pressure from Bezzecchi.

Carrying a wearing softer rear tyre the KTM rider had no response as Bezzecchi shot clear at Turn 6 to make it an Italian one-two.

Now Bezzecchi had a 1.1s gap to close on Bagnaia over the last nine laps and it proved too much.

Inside the final three laps the fight for third became a three-way affair with Martin joining Binder and Espargaro.

Despite them closing nose to tail and Martin coming up alongside Espargaro, the positions remained unchanged, however the stewards had the final say as Binder repeated his Sprint race mistake.

MotoGP now takes a month off for the summer break before firing back to life with the British Grand Prix on August 4-6.

2023 Dutch TT race results

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team)

2. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) +1.223

3. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) +1.925

4. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing)+1.528

5. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) +1.934

6. Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) +12.437

7. Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) +14.174

8. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) +14.616

9. Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) +29.335

10. Augusto Fernandez (GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3) +33.736

2023 MotoGP world championship standings after round 8

1 Francesco Bagnaia 194 points

2 Jorge Martin 159

3 Marco Bezzecchi 158

4 Brad Binder 114

5 Johann Zarco 109

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