Bagnaia dominates Dutch TT
Francesco Bagnaia has taken a hat-trick of Dutch TT and MotoGP glories in utterly dominant style at Assen.
Bagnaia’s third successive win at Assen and of 2024 was a special lights-to-flag success, where he finished 3.5s ahead of Jorge Martin, who never threatened. As a result only 10 points split them at the top of the championship.
A further 5s back was Enea Bastianini, who won a fierce fight for third against the likes of Marc Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Maverick Vinales, who made some costly last lap mistakes.
Bagnaia was never challenged in a fast race that saw some early drama in front of the biggest Dutch TT crowd since 1995 with a weekend attendance of 192,554.
The #1 was the big favourite having not only won the last two Dutch TTs, but also took Sprint and pole position honours.
The Italian is the first to take three successful Dutch wins since Australian legend Mick Doohan won from 1994-1998, while the reigning champion matched Casey Stoner’s Grand Prix wins at Ducati.
Jack Miller had a steady ride on the KTM to be 11th.
Bagnaia enjoyed a perfect start, leaving Vinales to fight off Martin for second with the Gresini brothers completing the top four.
Further back Alex Rins had a horrific high side on the exit of the first corner, where the Yamaha rider was launched into the air and landed upside down. Thankfully he walked away from the incident and went to the medical centre for checks.
Later in the lap Martin made a bold move to catch Vinales unawares and snatch second, while Miller made two spots to be 11th after the opening lap.
Having lost out to Martin, Vinales dropped from the top three completely with Marc Marquez getting by a lap later.
There were a host of early race victims. Luca Marini got stuck in the gravel on the Repsol Honda, while his teammate Joan Mir also fell and Marco Bezzecchi crashed at turn 5.
By Lap 6 Bagnaia pushed his lead to beyond a second for the first time with Martin getting set for a lonely race in second.
Di Giannantonio had similar pace and shot into the top three having blazed past Marquez and Vinales.
The move to snatch a podium place was particularly strange as Marquez appeared to allow the VR46 rider through at De Bult.
They were riding in close quarters 4s behind Martin, who was struggling to stay in touch with Bagnaia, who enjoyed a 1.4s advantage with 10 laps to go.
Di Giannantonio looked settled in third keeping Marquez at bay to a sudden mistake unsettled the pack on lap 19.
He ran slightly wide into De Bolt and the #49 slipped to fifth as Vinales saw the opportunity to reclaim third.
A lap later Bastianini was on the move and went shoulder to shoulder with Marquez and the current factory Ducati rider nudged his replacement out of the way.
Marquez was determined to reclaim some ground having also lost out to Di Giannantonio and fired past the #49 at the fastest corner of the track to return to the top five.
Vinales second stay in third was another short one as Bastianini made an impressively late move at the final chicane.
Trying to stay in touch with the group in seventh was Pedro Acosta, but he dropped out with a last-lap crash at the fast Turn 7.
Vinales made a mistake at Ramshoek, which allowed Marquez to snatch fourth with just three corners to go.
There were no concerns for Bagnaia, who enjoyed an untroubled ride to victory lane once again.
He hopes to carry on his championship charge at next weekend’s German Grand Prix.
2024 Dutch TT results
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team |
| 1 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP24) |
| 2 | Jorge Martin | SPA | Pramac Ducati (GP24) |
| 3 | Enea Bastianini | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP24) |
| 4 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Gresini Ducati (GP23) |
| 5 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | ITA | VR46 Ducati (GP23) |
| 6 | Maverick Viñales | SPA | Aprilia Factory (RS-GP24) |
| 7 | Brad Binder | RSA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) |
| 8 | Alex Marquez | SPA | Gresini Ducati (GP23) |
| 9 | Raul Fernandez | SPA | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP23) |
| 10 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Pramac Ducati (GP24) |
| 11 | Jack Miller | AUS | Red Bull KTM (RC16) |
| 12 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) |
| 13 | Johann Zarco | FRA | LCR Honda (RC213V) |
| 14 | Augusto Fernandez | SPA | Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 (RC16) |
| 15 | Miguel Oliveira | POR | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP24) |
| 16 | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | LCR Honda (RC213V) |
| 17 | Luca Marini | ITA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) |
| Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 (RC16) | |
| Joan Mir | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | |
| Marco Bezzecchi | ITA | VR46 Ducati (GP23) | |
| Alex Rins | SPA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) |
Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images
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