Staff Writer
Marco Bezzecchi, who qualified first, defeated Francesco Bagnaia to win the Dutch MotoGP sprint race at Assen on Saturday.
After Brad Binder, who had been in third place, was dropped to fifth due to a penalty for exceeding track restrictions, Fabio Quartararo completed the podium.
At turn one, Bagnaia overtook Binder to take the lead in the 13-lap sprint around the iconic motorcycle track while pole sitter Bezzecchi was caught napping and dropped to third.
Bezzecchi moved back to finish second while biding his time, keeping Bagnaia in his sights.
With ten laps remaining, Bezzecchi pushed past his close friend and fellow countryman to retake the lead and swiftly create an advantage of half a second.
At the halfway stage, Bezzecchi had the race to lose.
A record lap was established by the Italian, who dominated practice time in qualifying, didn’t let down, even increasing his margin of victory to 1.294 seconds.
He showed some of the Italian icon Valentino Rossi’s theatrics when competing for the VR46 Ducati-satellite squad, scaling a camera gantry to savor the cheers of his expanding fanbase.
After winning his first sprint, he commented, “I felt terrific today on the bike.
“I erred on the first corner and dropped two positions.
“But I managed to remain composed, and I returned at a good clip.
I sincerely hope the audience loved it. See you tomorrow.
After a “disastrous” Friday practice, Bagnaia was thrilled to finish in what he called a “unexpected” second position.
“On Friday, I was pretty irritated because I couldn’t get the settings to work my bicycle.
It’s hard to think that we managed to preserve the situation, but we did.
This was a nice turn of events for France’s 2021 world champion Quartararo, who only reached the podium twice this season after Binder was demoted.
The Yamaha rider who is competing this weekend despite having a fractured toe expressed his sadness for Brad since he knows how painful it is to miss out on a podium finish due to a penalty.
After colliding in the first qualifying session, six-time world champion Marc Marquez started and ended in 17th place, continuing his terrible tenure with Honda.
Jorge Martin (sixth) trails Bagnaia by 21 points heading into Sunday’s eighth round of the season, and Bezzecchi is a further 10 points back points in third place.
