Raul Fernandez went from fourth to first to secure his second Sprint race win of the season in the Assen MotoGP Sprint race.
The Spaniard took the lead in the opening stages of the race before comfortably prevailing as Trackhouse Racing secured a 1-2 finish thanks to Ai Ogura’s runner-up finish.
Aprilia locked out the first four positions for the first time in MotoGP history, and it held the top four places into Turn 1.
Ogura took the lead before Jorge Martin reclaimed first position at Turn 3, followed by the second Trackhouse rider, Fernandez.
Bezzecchi made a slight error at Turn 9, allowing Fabio Di Giannantonio to take fourth place from his former team-mate.
Fernandez overtook team-mate Ogura on Lap 2 as he established rapid early race pace, closing right behind Martin’s rear wheel.
On the following lap, two significant overtakes were made at the final corner, as Fernandez passed Martin for the lead while Di Giannantonio moved into third ahead of Ogura.
Rather unexpectedly, Martin made a minor error after briefly losing control of his RS-GP at Turn 5. This compromised his run through the following corners, allowing VR46 Ducati’s Di Giannantonio and Trackhouse team-mate Ogura to overtake him.
Despite the action at the front, the factory Ducati duo of Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia remained close behind in sixth and seventh.
The pair had a clear vision of the factory Aprilia riders battling ahead, until Bagnaia made a move on the reigning MotoGP champion at Turn 4 to snatch sixth spot.
Bezzecchi overtook his team-mate to move into fourth, but the battle allowed the leading trio to establish a 1.2-second advantage.
With Fernandez extending his lead to 1.2s over the rest of the field, his Japanese colleague made an impressive last-second lunge to take second spot.
Ogura tried to close the gap for the final few laps, but Fernandez secured victory by 0.4s to wrap up victory.
Ogura completed another podium finish after crossing the line in second, the same position he started.
Di Giannantonio rounded off proceedings with third place on the rostrum as he finished as the clear Ducati reference rider.
Bezzecchi and Martin finished fourth and fifth for Aprilia, respectively, with Martin slipping from pole position to fifth after leading the opening stages.
The factory Ducati duo of Marquez and Bagnaia sealed sixth and seventh spot, respectively.
Enea Bastianini finished as the top KTM rider with eighth, followed by Pedro Acosta who secured the final point in ninth.
Fabio Quartararo rounded off the top-10 positions, finishing ahead of the Honda duo Diogo Moreira and Luca Marini.
Alex Marquez claimed 13th spot for Gresini, ahead of Brad Binder, Alex Rins and Maverick Vinales.
Toprak Razgatlioglu and Augusto Fernandez followed in 17th and 18th as Cal Crutchlow rounded off proceedings.
VR46’s Franco Morbidelli, Pramac’s Jack Miller and Honda’s Joan Mir all failed to finish.








Discussion about this post