Francesco Bagnaia eased to Moto2 Dutch TT victory, as a late puncture for a charging Lorenzo Baldassarri took the pressure off the Italian.
Bagnaia converted pole into the lead at the start, as he took the holeshot into the first corner ahead of Marcel Schrotter and Luca Marini.
Another poor qualifying for the Sky VR46 rider's main title rival Miguel Oliveira – who trailed the Italian by a point prior to the Dutch event – left the Ajo KTM man with work to do, but was up to 12th by the end of lap one.
Schrotter but Bagnaia under some pressure in the opening stages, the Intact GP rider keeping Bagnaia's gap from stretching above six tenths.
However, the German soon started to come under threat from Alex Marquez, which allowed Bagnaia to just eke his advantage up to just over a second by lap nine.
Marquez guided his Marc VDS Kalex through on Schrotter into Haarbocht after the German ran deep into the Gert Timmer chicane on lap nine.
The Spaniard's time in second did not las long, though, as Baldassarri charged from 13th on the grid to move ahead of Marquez at Stekkenwal on lap 11.
Baldassarri was able to cut down Bagnaia's 2.7s lead to 1.5s come the closing stages, but his charge ended when he suffered a puncture with four laps to go.
That gave Bagnaia a comfortable two-second margin to cruise to his fourth win of the season to take a 16-point lead in the championship, as Oliveira's early run stalled at sixth.
Starting 12th after a three-place penalty for ignoring the red flag in qualifying, Barcelona race winner Fabio Quartararo stormed through the pack to put himself into podium contention for the final laps.
The Speed Up rider scythed past Schrotter at Stekkenwal to take fourth, and effortlessly swoopped underneath Marquez at Ossebroeken on the penultimate tour to move into second.
Marquez followed Quartararo home to complete the podium, with Schrotter ending up fourth ahead of Joan Mir and Oliveira.
Brad Binder was seventh on the sister Ajo KTM, while front row starter Luca Marini faded to eighth early on. Sam Lowes and Mattia Pasini completed the top 10, the latter benefiting from a penalty for his Italtrans teammate Andrea Locatelli, who dropped to 11th as a result.
Baldassarri's Pons team fitted a fresh rear tyre to his machine, and returned to the race to finish a lap down in 26. He now sits 51 points adrift of Bagnaia in the championship in fourth.
Quartararo's stablemate Danny Kent was an early faller, as was Stefan Manzi. Xavi Vierge crashed at the first turn on lap 10, while Romano Fenati was a late retirement.
Heavy falls for Niki Tuuli and wildcard Xavi Cardelus in qualifying ruled them out of Sunday's race, with the former having part of one of his fingers amputated in an operation on Saturday.
