Bagnaia triumphs, Quartararo makes a mistake!

It is customary to say that at Assen, something very often happens, a twist of events that upsets the hierarchy. This 2022 Dutch GP is once again the perfect illustration. The fight promised to be particularly close between Francesco Bagnaia, fabio quartararo and Aleix Espargaro, but once again, the MotoGP always offers its share of twists and turns. 

From pole position, Francesco Bagnaia made the best start to take the lead at the first braking ahead of Aleix Espargaro who somewhat missed the apex. Pushed back to fourth place a moment behind Jorge Martin, Quartararo regains the advantage over the Madrilenian to set off in pursuit of Espargaro. 

Ahead, Bagnaia is already a few steps ahead of his pursuers. Coming back in Espargaro's wake on the fifth lap, Quartararo attempted a slightly too optimistic maneuver at turn 5 by diving inside his Catalan rival, but the Frenchman lost the front, carrying Espargaro with him in his fall. The Aprilia representative nevertheless manages to stay on his wheels, but he downgrades to 15^e position. Quartararo was also able to leave dead last before returning to his box for a brief check-up of his Yamaha YZR-M1 and exiting. A few moments later, the world champion fell again in the same corner and decided to retire.

Bagnaia finds himself alone in the lead with a boulevard lead over Martin, who is now under threat from another Italian in the person of Marco Bezzecchi. But with 10 laps to go, the track marshals began to wave the rain flags in certain sectors of the circuit. Bagnaia then reduced his pace slightly, but fortunately for the Ducati rider, the showers stopped and he was able to claim his third success of the year. He revived a little in the championship by moving up to fourth position, 66 points behind Quartararo. 

Bezzecchi managed to get rid of Martin to reach the podium for the first time in his rookie year. After abandoning with a mechanical problem in Germany, Maverick Viñales also took his revenge by claiming his first Top 3 on the handlebars of an Aprilia. 

After a sensational comeback and a breathtaking overtake in the final chicane on Brad Binder and Jack Miller, Espargaro finished fourth and came back 21 lengths behind Quartararo overall. Martin has to settle for seventh place ahead of Joan Mir, first Japanese bike in the ranking, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Rins, who completes the Top 10.  

Second a week ago in Germany, Johann Zarco scores three points in the Netherlands by finishing in 13^e position. 

Ranking