Fabio Quartararo scored dominant win during Ducth MotoGP 2021 at Motul TT Assen circuit on Sunday. Teammate Maverick Vinales on Monster Energy Yamaha was second with the Spaniard Joan Mir of Suzuki Ecstar third.
Quartararo dove into the Haarbocht first before Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, who managed to pass him on the first lap. The well started Takaaki Nakagami took third place just ahead of Vinales. Marc Marquez managed to get to eleventh place on the first lap from the twentieth position on the grid.
The differences at the front remained small in the opening laps, as about ten riders stayed close to each other. At the end of the sixth lap, Quartararo took back the lead. The Frenchman then immediately set the fastest race lap and managed to break away from the group.
At that moment, ten-time TT Assen winner Valentino Rossi failed to finish after falling off his bike with seven laps to go.
“It was a really tough race. I struggled a little bit at the weekend with my right arm and on the race I was feeling bad, but I kept the pace and I can be happy.” Quartararo said.
“I had the battle with Maverick on the Saturday in qualifying and he won, but the points arrive on Sunday so I’m so happy.” he added.
Behind Quartararo there was a great battle for second place. Bagnaia and Nakagami changed positions regularly, while Vinales, Johann Zarco, Joan Mir and Miguel Oliveira also followed.
Halfway through the race, Bagnaia was given a long lap penalty, which he executed right away. At the same time, Nakagami lost a lot of places within one lap and Miller fell from eighth. Because of all those incidents, the group fell apart.
Vinales came in second, but the gap to his teammate was already four seconds at that point. Vinales was a little faster than Quartararo in the last part of the race, but not enough to connect.
The next MotoGP round of the season is the Styrian Grand Prix on August 8, wich is set to welcome full stands of fans.
