Quartararo Extends Championship Lead With Dutch TT Win

Calum Gill 14:15 27/06/2021

Yamaha factory rider Fabio Quartararo has furthered his lead at the top of the MotoGP standings, after winning the Dutch TT at Assen.

Frenchman Quartararo had drawn alongside polesitter Viñales at the start and moved across the moment he edged ahead, seemingly compromising Viñales – though he said his loss of momentum was clutch-related. Viñales immediately dropped to fifth, but would reclaim a spot from Álex Rins a few corners later. 

The Yamaha tussle allowed Bagnaia to latch onto the back of Quartararo, and his spirited opening-lap attacks made Quartararo run wide at De Buit, allowing Bagnaia to jump ahead. The Italian would hold the lead for the next four laps, and even as Quartararo pulled off a successful lunge down the inside of the Geert Timmer chicane on the fifth tour, Bagnaia immediately retaliated on the straight thanks to the Ducati’s superior power.

But a subsequent move earlier into the lap got the job done for Quartararo, as he dived down the inside of the Duikersloot right-hander, maintained position on the straight and immediately began to make a break for it. By the start of lap 10, Quartararo had already pulled out a two-second gap, while Bagnaia started to come under increasing pressure from a gaggle of riders behind, briefly dropping behind LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami on laps 11 and 13 but both times using his Ducati’s straightline speed to get back ahead.

The Bagnaia bottleneck ultimately allowed Viñales to pounce on Nakagami through Hoge Heide, with Johann Zarco (Pramac) following through - and Bagnaia then removing himself from the podium fight by serving a long-lap penalty for repeat track limits abuse. This left Viñales - the only rider on the grid to opt for the soft front tyre - with clean air for the first time, and he maintained strong pace for the rest of the race, but could only bring Quartararo’s four-second lead down to 2.757 seconds at the chequered flag.

Current world champion Joan Mir charged through the field to secure third place, after a late move on Zarco at Strubben. Zarco now finds himself 34 points behind leader Quartararo. Miguel Oliveira rode a quietly impressive race to compete the top five as comfortably the best of the KTMs, while Bagnaia recovered to sixth, seeing off late challenges from Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) and Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia).

Marquez had improved to 11th from his career-worst starting position of 20th on the opening lap alone, but found gains harder to come by from there on, eventually beating Aleix Espargaró in a late duel for eighth. Nakagami settled for ninth, compromised at one point by a forceful Stekkenwal move from Mir, while Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) finished a lonely 10th. Suzuki rider Rins was run out wide by Zarco early on and dropped to last place, but recovered to a credible 11th.

MotoGP debutant Garrett Gerloff, standing in for Franco Morbidelli at Petronas Yamaha, fought rookie Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Avintia) for most of the race before settling into a comfortable 17th when Marini faded. Jack Miller’s title hopes suffered a big dent as he fell off at Strubben moments after inheriting seventh place due to Bagnaia’s long-lap penalty. He did rejoin the race, but was ordered to come into the pits by a black-and-orange flag, signifying bike damage.

There was also a crash for Iker Lecuona while the Tech3 KTM man was running 12th, while Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martín pulled into the pits after 14 laps, potentially still feeling the after-effects of his Portimao crash. Petronas Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was the first rider to exit from the race, having suffered a terrible start and then a fast, bike-shredding crash at Ruskenhoek on the eighth lap.

2021 Dutch TT Classification