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

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 at the chequered flag.

Bagnaia has closed 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 Marc 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.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

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.

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

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 sister factory team Ducati, while Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the top five for VR46 ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

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 race results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1		Ducati	13	-				12
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89		Ducati	13	+2.355 2.355	2.355			9
3	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12		Aprilia	13	+4.103 4.103	1.748			7
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23		Ducati	13	+6.377 6.377	2.274			6
5	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	13	+8.869 8.869	2.492			5
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	13	+9.727 9.727	0.858			4
7	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	13	+10.828 10.828	1.101			3
8	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	13	+13.196 13.196	2.368			2
9	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21		Ducati	13	+13.560 13.560	0.364			1
10	P. Acosta Tech 3	31		KTM	13	+15.972 15.972	2.412
11	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72		Ducati	13	+16.036 16.036	0.064
12	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88		Aprilia	13	+16.082 16.082	0.046
13	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43		KTM	13	+18.739 18.739	2.657
14	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36		Honda	13	+21.791 21.791	3.052
15	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37		KTM	13	+22.450 22.450	0.659
16	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	13	+23.690 23.690	1.240
17	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	13	+24.430 24.430	0.740
18	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30		Honda	13	+29.568 29.568	5.138
19	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42		Yamaha	13	+1.230 1.230
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41		Aprilia	12	1 lap			Accident
dnf	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32		Aprilia	4	9 laps			Retirement
dnf	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10		Honda	4	9 laps			Retirement
dnf	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93		Ducati	1	12 laps			Retirement
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