Sasaki Takes First Moto3 Win As Fernández Goes Level With Moto2 Lead In Assen

Grid Talk Reporter 12:52 26/06/2022

Ayumu Sasaki took a maiden Moto3 win in the Dutch Grand Prix as Augusto Fernández claimed victory in the Moto2 class at Assen.

The Moto3 race began Sunday's races, with Japan’s Sasaki taking a maiden grand prix victory in a chaotic race. Sasaki started from pole but lost out to Leopard’s Tatsuki Suzuki off the line, before one of the title favourites Izan Guevara on the Aspar GasGas took the lead at the end of the second lap. Guevara led for the next 17 laps as the pack behind chopped and changed, before Sasaki came through at the Turn 5 hairpin in the closing stages. Sasaki would make his decisive move at the end of the penultimate lap as Guevara got swallowed back into the lead group of nine. Max Racing Husqvarna rider Sasaki resisted a late surge from Suzuki and Guevara to take his first career grand prix victory. Coming into the Turn 9 left-hander, the lead group shrunk when Boé SKX KTM rookie David Muñoz crashed and wiped out Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Jaume Masià, while Sasaki’s teammate John McPhee slid out in his own incident.

Through the final sequence of corners, Guevara snatched second back from Suzuki as the sister Aspar GasGas of championship leader Sergio García came from 18th on the grid to snatch third. Suzuki was fourth at the chequered flag ahead of Prüstel GP’s Xavier Artigas and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Daniel Holgado, who had to serve a long lap penalty early in the race. Angeluss MTA Team’s Stefano Nepa was seventh ahead of Ryusei Yamanaka (MT Helmets - MSI), Tech 3 KTM’s Deniz Öncü and Kaito Toba (CIP Green Power KTM). García holds a slender three-point championship lead going into the five-week summer break from Guevara, while a late crash for Leopard’s Dennis Foggia has cast him 67 points adrift in third.

In the Moto2 race, Red Bull KTM Ajo's Augusto Fernández took his third win of the 2022 season to move into a joint lead of the championship after a dramatic grand prix. Boscoscuro Speed Up rider Alonso López led the early stages after jumping poleman Jake Dixon off the line, and headed the pack until the eighth tour when Liqiu Moly Intact GP’s Marcel Schrötter came through into Turn 6. Schrötter, seeking his first grand prix win, would crash out at Turn 5 on lap 12, which promoted Aspar’s Albert Arenas into the lead ahead of Fernández. Fernández would come through into the lead in the latter stages, while Arenas would crash on lap 22. Once clear, Fernández broke away to take victory 0.660 seconds clear of Honda Team Asia’s Ai Ogura, who recovered from a massive scare on the opening lap that dropped him to 16th to take second.

Poleman Dixon on the Aspar bike completed the podium ahead of VR46’s Celestino Vietti, who missed the rostrum by just 0.033 seconds in fourth. Home hero Bo Bendsneyder on the SAG Racing machine was fifth ahead of López, who ran off at Turn 1 late on, with Elf Marc VDS’ Tony Arbolino, Joe Roberts (Italtrans), Yamaha VR46 Master Camp’s Manuel González and Gresini’s Filip Salač rounding out the top 10. Vietti holds the championship lead but is level on 146 points with Fernández, while Ogura is just one point back in third. Pons Racing’s Arón Canet is now 30 points off the lead having been forced to miss the Dutch GP due to nosebleeds as a legacy of a car accident prior to last week’s German GP. Red Bull KTM Ajo rookie Pedro Acosta was also forced to sit out this weekend’s Dutch GP after breaking his leg in a motocross training accident earlier this week.