Repsol Honda RC213V riders Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez both took profit from today’s Dutch TT at Assen. The younger rider Marquez had the better result, finishing second to continue a run of top-three finishes interrupted only once in his first MotoGP season; but Pedrosa had the comfort of extending his overall points lead, with a strong fourth place.

A crowd of 90,000 fans made the journey to the north of The Netherlands to the classic Assen circuit, to be rewarded with yet another close and exciting race, won by popular former multi-champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), his first victory since 2010. It was the climax to a dramatic weekend, when all top three championship rivals suffered crashes in damp and difficult practice sessions.

Pedrosa was lucky to escape injury, but Marquez was nursing not only painful bruising but also a fracture in the little finger of his right hand, and another in his right foot. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) broke his collar-bone on Thursday, underwent surgery that night, and returned to the track for the Saturday race, finishing fifth.

Marquez’s second place was his second this year in the MotoGP class after winning the Moto2 World Championship last year. He claimed a first win at only his second MotoGP race at Austin in Texas, second place at Jerez in round three, and has been third at every other race except in Italy for round five, when he crashed out while lying second.

He qualified second at Assen – his fourth time on the front row, but was displaced on the run into the first corner by flying team-mate Pedrosa. Marquez stayed with the older Repsol Honda RC213V rider as Rossi came past both of them on lap six of 26, and the trio kept close company as the laps counted down.

Then as Pedrosa’s pace dropped Marquez finally got ahead after several attempts with nine laps to go. He chased Rossi in vain, and at the end successfully fended of a fierce attack from third-placed Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha).

Pedrosa’s race started well, but the feeling didn’t last for the points leader, who has won twice this year so far. He took the lead into the first corner with a familiar jack-rabbit start from the second row; and stayed there for the first five laps, controlling the pace.

But the Spanish racer was expecting difficulties in the later laps. He’d been chasing grip issues all weekend, and as the tyres wore they returned with a vengeance. His valiant defence of second was eventually in vain, and by the end of the race he had dropped back, to finish fourth behind Crutchlow. It was the first time he has finished below second in the last five races.

German LCR Honda RC213V rider Stefan Bradl finished a lone sixth after a steady race. He had lost positions off the start in the early laps as he struggled to regain the feeling that gave him his first-ever front-row qualifying position; but was steadfast in sixth, comfortably clear of the opposition.

That came from Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V rider Alvaro Bautista, four seconds behind Bradl but less than one ahead of his race-long rival Aleix Espargaro (ART). After crashing out of the last two races, the Spanish former 125cc World Champion was anxious to secure a safe finish, but had his hands full with the persistent Espargaro to the finish.

Australian grand prix first-timer Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) was 21st on the Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT machine, crossing the line fourth in a close group of five battling riders. Eighteenth to 22nd places were covered by less than two seconds.



Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 2nd

“Overall the pace was faster than I had expected. At the start and throughout the race both Dani and Valentino were very strong. In fact, Valentino was simply faster than us today. I could only pass Dani towards the end because at first I had a lot of trouble. Once I was ahead of Dani, I tried to catch Valentino, but my arm began to affect me and I couldn’t brake in my normal way, due to my injured finger. In the end we took 20 points after a good battle with Cal, and I think I defended pretty well against him. In general, we can say we’ve done a good job all weekend. I would also like to congratulate Valentino, as it’s always good for motorcycle racing when he is up at the front.”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 4th

“Today I started well, saving a crash at the very beginning with cold tyres, and I was able to continue and put in some good laps. Then I had problems with the tyres, both in the front and the rear. Still, I tried to hold on for as long as possible, because I don’t want it to be an excuse. I sat behind Rossi for several laps, then as the race progressed it was more and more difficult to keep up, especially when Marc and Crutchlow caught me. I guess everyone was sliding around behind us, but I found I couldn’t control the bike on entry to some corners and that made me lose touch, especially in the closing laps. Overall this weekend we had very negative feelings and in the end we managed an okay race. Now it is time to move on, relax and get ready for the next round. Finally, congratulations to Jorge, because what he did today and how he did it was very impressive. I take my hat off to him.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 6th

“Honestly we are not completely happy because we were expecting a better result after our first front row. Sixth is still okay, but we missed something to catch the guys in front. Actually we could not repeat yesterday’s lap times, and I felt the bike was heavier to turn. This cost us a lot of time in corner entries. Some riders passed me in the beginning on brakes because I was not able to fix my braking point, and I struggled to find my references. I was not able to put the things together and reduce the gap to the front. Now we move to Argentina for a two-day test session, and then my home race at the Sachsenring. I am really looking forward to racing in front of my local fans.”

Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 7th

“We finished the race, and this was above all the main goal of this weekend. It’s a small consolation but after two setbacks this was very important. In the race I didn’t have a perfect feeling with the bike, because it was unstable and moving around a lot. Unfortunately with the weather conditions being so variable we didn’t have the time required to find the best setup. At first I tried to stay calm by getting heat into the tyres, trying not to take excessive risks. Maybe I lost a bit too much time then, and later from the middle of the race I had problems with the rear brake and I could not slow down as I wanted. It took a few laps to adapt to the situation, and after that I tried to finish in the best possible way. It was not really a good race, but it was important to finish in order to think about the future with greater serenity.

Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 21st

“I was convinced that I could do much better. For a while I battled as part of the group but then I was not consistent enough until the end. For this reason I am a little disappointed with my performance. It’s further experience, but I would have preferred to end it with a different result. However, I’ve learned some important things that I hope to put into practice in future races.

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