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MotoGP Dutch GP: Bagnaia takes dominant sprint win, Marquez crashes

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MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia dominated the Dutch Grand Prix sprint to narrow Jorge Martin’s points lead in the standings, as Marc Marquez crashed out.

Having topped both practice sessions on a Friday for the first time in his MotoGP career and taken pole with a lap record, Bagnaia led from start to finish in the 13-lap Assen sprint.

The factory Ducati rider seized the holeshot off the line and resisted the early attentions of Pramac counterpart Martin before streaking clear by over two seconds to the chequered flag.

This has allowed him to close down Martin’s championship lead to 15 points ahead of Sunday’s grand prix at Assen.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales completed the podium, while championship contender Marquez crashed out of the podium battle on lap two and is now 44 points adrift in the standings.

Bagnaia led Martin, Alex Marquez, Vinales and Marc Marquez off the line on the opening lap of 13 in the sprint.

A mistake for Martin at Turn 8 on the first lap gave Bagnaia crucial metres to preserve his lead through to the end of the tour.

Martin held onto second to start lap two, while Marc Marquez’s race ended at Turn 3 when he appeared to clip the inside kerb with his right knee and crashed out.

Into the final chicane at the end of lap two, Vinales launched his factory Aprilia up the inside of the remaining Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez to snatch third and quickly pulled away.

By the start of lap five, Bagnaia was half a second clear of Martin and brought that gap up to over a second three tours later.

The Ducati rider continued to extend this advantage, though had some jeopardy to contend with when he was handed a warning for exceeding track limits too many times.

However, he would keep things clean through to the chequered flag to register back-to-back sprint wins in 2024.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Martin ended up 2.355s behind Bagnaia on his Pramac-run Ducati, while Vinales was 1.7s adrift in third.

Enea Bastianini rallied from 11th on the grid to take fourth on the second factory team Ducati, while Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top five for VR46 ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was promoted to seventh at the chequered flag after Alex Marquez was hit with a three-second time penalty for failing to serve a long lap for repeatedly exceeding track limits.

This dropped the Gresini rider one spot to eighth, while the final sprint race point went to Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli.

Pedro Acosta struggled to 10th on his Tech3 GasGas, while last year’s Assen sprint winner Marco Bezzecchi (VR46) could do no more than 11th.

Top Honda honours went to Joan Mir in 14th, 21.791s off the leader, while team-mate Luca Marini retired on lap five after his RC213V expired coming out of the last corner.

Aleix Espargaro crashed out on the last lap in a fast accident at Turn 15 while fighting for fifth, marking his second fall of the weekend after a nasty spill on Friday.

Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori also crashed out of the race.

MotoGP Dutch GP - Sprint results:

   
1
 - 
5
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 13

-

      12
2 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 13

+2.355

2.355

2.355     9
3 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 13

+4.103

4.103

1.748     7
4 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 13

+6.377

6.377

2.274     6
5 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati 13

+8.869

8.869

2.492     5
6 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 13

+9.727

9.727

0.858     4
7 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 13

+10.828

10.828

1.101     3
8 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 13

+13.196

13.196

2.368     2
9 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati 13

+13.560

13.560

0.364     1
10 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM 13

+15.972

15.972

2.412      
11 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 13

+16.036

16.036

0.064      
12 Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia 13

+16.082

16.082

0.046      
13 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 13

+18.739

18.739

2.657      
14 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 13

+21.791

21.791

3.052      
15 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 13

+22.450

22.450

0.659      
16 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda 13

+23.690

23.690

1.240      
17 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia 13

+24.430

24.430

0.740      
18 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 13

+29.568

29.568

5.138      
19 Spain A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42 Yamaha 13

+1.230

1.230

       
dnf Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 12

1 lap

    Accident  
dnf Italy L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team 32 Aprilia 4

9 laps

    Retirement  
dnf Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda 4

9 laps

    Retirement  
dnf Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati 1

12 laps

    Retirement  

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