LIVE – Moto GP (Netherlands): catastrophic day for Quartararo, Bagnaia takes victory

“I made a rookie mistake, I wanted to push too hard from the start. It was a stupid mistake. I went to apologize because today’s winner was him (Espargaro), given the pace he had. I wanted to start again to try to score some points. When I left, I saw that something was wrong but we’ll see what he says. We made a mistake on this circuit but the potential is there”, commented Quartararo at the microphone of Canal +.

Leader from start to finish, Francesco Bagnaia won on the Assen circuit, ahead of Bezzecchi and Viñales! Good operation for Espargaro (4th), who grabs points on Quartararo, who fell twice.

Bad day for the French since Johann Zarco finished 13th.

Miller completely misses his overtaking attempt and Viñales stays on the podium.

Miller’s bike is just behind Viñales’, who smells his opponent’s breath.

Behind Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and Vinales monopolize 2nd and 3rd place, but Jack Miller is lurking less than a second behind.

At the moment, Espargaro takes nine points from Quartararo and is only 25 points behind the Yamaha rider.

As the rain arrived, Francesco Bagnaia remained the leader ahead of Bezzecchi. Espargaro is 8th. For the moment the pilots do not stop to possibly change bike.

The Quartararo dolphin is recovering from his collision and continues his recovery, being 10th. The French, however, keeps a good margin in the standings despite his white day.

In the same bend as the first fall, Fabio Quartararo slips and goes over his bike doing a sun! He gets up but limps down. He will not leave for this GP of the Netherlands.

When we thought he was going to give up, Fabio Quartararo returned to the circuit to everyone’s surprise.

The Yamaha rider goes straight into the gravel, while his bike is in tatters.

The Yamaha rider falls in the same place as his teammate.

Very fast on his bike, the Spaniard tries to come back to grab some points.

As he wanted to overtake Espargaro, Quartaro fell and went into the gravel! The Spaniard is back in the race (15th), just like the Frenchman, who is last! This is his first big mistake since the start of the championship.

In 1’32″6, the Frenchman nibbled a few hundredths from Espargaro, who seemed slower.

Starting 7th, Johann Zarco fell back to 11th place.

The Frenchman tries to catch up with Aleix Espargaro, who is himself chasing Bagnaia. The Spaniard obviously wants to take points from Quartararo.

Quartararo was overtaken by Espargaro from the start, while Bagnaia took the lead and already took a second lead.

The Assen circuit is mythical and very technical, with many turns.

1. Fabio Quartararo 172 pts

2. Aleix Espargaro 138 pts

3. Johann Zarco 111 pts

4. Enea Bastianini 100 pts

5. Brad Binder 82 pts

6. Francesco Bagnaia 81 pts

7. Jack Miller 81 pts

8. Alex Rins 69 pts

A few minutes before the start of the GP, the last before a 5-week break, Fabio Quartararo is relaxed. Headphones on, the world champion leaves his box to get ready. “There’s work to start. We haven’t started, I feel good. The tires are holding up well and I think we can do that well”, confided the Yamaha rider on Canal+.

For the moment, the sky is clear, but rain could appear during the race.

A very big blow carried out by the Spaniard (Red Bull), who picks up the championship lead from Celestino Vietti after two victories in a row. The race podium is completed by Ai Ogura and Jake Dixon.

The pilots will have to do 26 laps on the Assen circuit (4.542 km), place of the 11th stage of these world championships (out of 21).

26-year-old Spanish rider Alex Marquez will leave Honda-LCR to join the ranks of Ducati-Gresini in 2023, the Italian MotoGP team announced on Sunday.

The brother of the star of the discipline Marc Marquez (Honda) will join at Gresini the Italian pilot Fabio Di Giannantonio, who keeps his handlebars.

“It was crucial for me to change in order to regain the same type of motivation that I had when I joined this category” in 2020, the Spaniard said in a statement.

World champion in the lower categories Moto3 (2014) and Moto2 (2019), Alex Marquez has never confirmed since his arrival in MotoGP, finishing 14th then 16th in the world. He is this year, mid-season, 18th.

The reigning world champion remains on two victories in a row and has not had a place outside the top 4 since the GP of the Americas on April 10.

Welcome to this live commentary to follow the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix live. On the Assen circuit, Francesco Bagnaia won pole position this Saturday, ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin, while Johann Zarco will start from 7th position on Sunday. The start will be given at 2 p.m.