Arriving at Assen weekend at 91 points from Quartararo after two successive DNFs, Bagnaia’s title hopes were bolstered by an early fall from Quartararo that also forced Aleix Espargaro off the track.
With Ducati’s first victory in Assen since 2008, Bagnaia’s victory of flag lights from the pole places him 66 points behind Quartararo before the summer break.
Poleman Bagnaia made the jump to the offside field to make the hole in turn 1 when Quartararo came out and let Espargaro and Jorge Martín pass.
Quartararo recovered Martin’s third immediately on turn 3 and passed Espargaro on turn 5.
But Espargaró reacted to the fast turn 6 for the right to regain second place in the championship lead while the advantage of Bagnaia extends to about a second during the first round.
Quartararo overshadowed Espargaro for the next three laps before launching his foray into the Aprilia rider on turn 5 on the fifth lap.
But the Yamaha rider crashed while trying to overtake and hit Espargaró, forcing the Spaniard into the gravel.
Quartararo rejoined the race behind the group with his damaged Yamaha and entered the pitlane at the end of the ninth lap before returning to the circuit.
But his day would soon go from bad to worse, as he suffered a nasty start from turn 5 on lap 13, which meant his first retirement from Valencia 2020.
Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia Racing Team, Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing crash
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The Quartararo / Espargaro incident will be investigated after the race, while allowing Bagnaia to move 1.4 seconds away from VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi, who opted to use the soft rear tire instead of the hard one. who selected Bagnaia.
Bagnaia’s lead would be below a second during the subsequent laps and remained fairly stable, as Jorge Martin de Pramac tried unsuccessfully to pressure Bezzecchi to make a mistake.
The battle for the podium took a new turn on lap 17 when light rain began to fall in the back half of the Assen circuit, causing Martin’s pace to drop as Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales arrived. in the third position through the fast turn 15 to the left at the end of the lap.
Jack Miller of Ducati, who served a long lap penalty on the fourth lap to block Vinales in the standings, and Brad Binder of KTM, experts in questionable conditions, dropped even further to Martin on laps 17 and 18 as they raced. they struggled for the final podium.
The brief rain cleared for the few remaining laps, with Bagnaia missing almost two seconds of a single stage to secure his third win of the season to stop a series of consecutive DNFs and offer a glimpse of his challenge. title. of hope.
Bezzecchi made no mistakes in claiming his first MotoGP podium and first for the VR46 roster, while Vinales recorded his first Aprilia grandstand a year after his last with Yamaha the weekend he decided to leave the Japanese manufacturer for 2022.
Espargaro finished 15th after the Quartararo incident, but cut through the field to save the fourth with an impressive double overtake on the last corner of Binder and Miller on the last lap.
The Aprilia rider’s recovery task means he is now just 21 points behind Quartararo in the standings.
Binder snatched the fifth from Miller after a slight contact between the pair in Espargaro’s overtaking on the final lap, while Martin finished seventh.
Joan Mir has recovered from 14th on the grid to finish eighth with his Suzuki, surviving pre-race contact with KTM’s Miguel Oliveira while lined up on his grid, and another touchdown with VR46’s Luca Marini off the line.
Oliveira was ninth in the checkered flag, with Alex Rins completing the top 10 in the second Suzuki ahead of Enres Bastianini of Gresini and Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda, who had to serve a long lap penalty to exceed the limits of the track.
The last points were for Johann Zarco of Pramac, Fabio Di Giannantonio and his future Gresini teammate Alex Marquez (LCR).
Andrea Dovizioso was the only Yamaha to reach the finish line, but the RNF Racing rider was only 16th, and the Japanese brand suffered a useless grand prize a week after Honda passed it.
Marini, Honda’s Stefan Bradl, Tech 3 KTM’s Remy Gardner and Aprilia Lorenzo Savadori’s wildcard were the last to qualify.
Raul Fernandez (Tech 3) retired late due to problems with the arm bomb, while Darryn Binder (RNF) and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli crashed.