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MotoGP

The number 46 takes his 115th career win in a dramatic classic at the ‘Cathedral’

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) penned another stunning chapter in what is now the longest winning career in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing at the ‘Cathedral’ of speed, as the number 46 took his 115th win in the Motul TT Assen, more than 20 years after his first. Six hundredths of a second was the distance between victory and podium, as Rossi just headed compatriot Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) over the line. Reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) won a three-way fight for third to complete the rostrum in another close contest, beating Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) by 0.042 at the flag.

At lights out, it was Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) who took the holeshot from his first ever pole position despite a better start from Marquez, and the Frenchman led the field away as Rossi took Petrucci for third. Behind was a mid-pack dogfight for fifth as Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Racing) led Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team), Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Cal Crutchlow and Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) in the early stages of a race that would go on to be a classic.

As the front four settled into a game of high-octane chess and pulled a gap, Redding was pushing hard in fifth to escape from those on the chase – but ‘DesmoDovi’ and Viñales were soon on the scene, with the Spaniard taking over in fifth to hunt down the leaders as Rossi then struck against Marquez at the front.

And then Viñales crashed.

Pushing to close down a three second gap back up to the top four, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider lost control at the final chicane and slid off just ahead of key rival Dovizioso – suffering his second DNF of the year. As the rider from Roses made it back down pitlane, Petrucci took second from Marquez and the ‘Doctor’ began to pull away in the lead – over a second ahead with nine to go.

And then? It started to rain – and the story was evidently far from over.

As the flag flew to signal bike changes were allowed, first in was Zarco, with the Frenchman taking the gamble just ahead of Hector Barbera (Reale Avintia Racing) as the conditions remained in the balance and the majority stayed out.

It was initially a four-way battle for the win as ‘DesmoDovi’ exploded onto the scene at the front, with Rossi back in the clutches of his compatriots and Marquez – but the rain began to fall again. As the last lap dawned, it was Petrucci dueling Rossi at the front, as Marquez and Dovizioso suddenly found themselves hunted down by Crutchlow and the stage was set: a duel for the win, and a three-way fight for third.

Past backmarkers, through the rain and incredibly tight together over the line, it was the ‘Doctor’ first at the flag – with Petrucci forced to settle for second as the number 46 took his first race win in over a year and the 115th of his career, extending his winning career at world level to the longest in history.

Behind Petrucci, the battle raged and Marquez beat Crutchlow over the line by only 0.042 to complete the podium, with ‘DesmoDovi’ fifth at the flag – and now heading to Germany with the Championship lead.

Jack Miller navigated a difficult race to take another impressive result at the TT Circuit Assen where he won last year, crossing the line in sixth after staying at the sharp end throughout. Karel Abraham (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) shone in the circumstances to move through in the latter stages, dueling Loris Baz (Reale Avintia Racing) over the line as the two took P7 and P8 respectively. Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) took some solid points in ninth, just a tenth off the two Ducatis ahead of him.

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) completed the top ten for some good points after a difficult race last time out, ahead of a stunning result for his brother Pol Espargaro as the younger of the two took the best yet result for Red Bull KTM Factory racing in P11. The KTM rider beat Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) by less than a second as the 2014 Moto2™ World Champion took another points finish in P12, ahead of a difficult day for Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team).

Zarco’s tyre gamble didn’t pay off, with the Frenchman then also handed a ride through for speeding in the pitlane and eventually classified in P14, leading the group the riders who went in to change bikes – Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) was next, completing the points, ahead of Hector Barbera (Reale Avintia Racing) and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar).

Bautista was a DNF, as well as Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Sam Lowes (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Scott Redding.

After another chapter of history was written at Assen, ahead awaits the Sachsenring for the last race before the summer break. And with a new name at the top of the standings: Andrea Dovizioso.

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Yamaha MotoGP

Valentino Rossi brought his A game to the Motul TT Assen race today. The nine-time World Champion completed a challenging weekend due to mixed conditions with a superb win, giving him the longest winning career through all classes, spread over 20 years and 313 days. Teammate Maverick Viñales fought his way up from eleventh on the grid and was heading towards the leading group, but his efforts ended in a DNF after an unlucky fall.

Rossi kicked off the Dutch Grand Prix from fourth position as darker skies loomed. He quickly slotted in behind Johann Zarco and Marc Marquez in third place and was quick to respond as his rivals attempted to break away, setting a provisional fastest lap of the race on lap three and four, with Danilo Petrucci tagging along.

The Doctor piled on the pressure with 17 laps to go and overtook Marquez a lap later in the first corner, making the fans cheer. He duplicated this manoeuvre on the next lap to take over the lead from Zarco, which was followed by a touch between the two in turn 4, but the Italian kept the lead. Four laps later the Factory Yamaha man inched away as his pursuers battled for second place.

The Doctor increased his lead to about a second, but with 8 laps left white flags came out as rain started to fall. Rossi was forced to lower his pace, allowing his rivals to close up. Adrenaline levels reached an all-time high for the VR46 fans as their hero fought tooth and nail to hold off his rival. Petrucci passed him with five laps to go, but the nine-time World Champion wasn‘t going to let the win slip away that easily. A lap later he used his nimble Yamaha YZR-M1 to charge past his compatriot in the chicane to regain the lead. The last laps were filled with drama as the pair had to deal with backmarkers, but Rossi held firm, taking a sensational win with a 0.063s advantage.

It was a busy race for teammate Viñales. Starting from eleventh on the grid he flew off the line and made his way through the first lap settling into tenth place. He took a couple of laps to get his tyres up to temperature at the cool Assen track, before he heated up his pace and started to carve through the bunched-up pack of riders.

The Spaniard put his head down and hit the front of the group fighting for fifth place with 16 laps left and was making strides, until a crash in the chicane prematurely ended his quest.

Today’s results see Rossi move up to third place in the championship standings with a 108-point total. He is now three points behind his teammate Viñales in second place. The sensational win sees Yamaha hold the lead in the constructor championship with a 22-point margin and Movistar Yamaha MotoGP remain the leaders in the team standings by 28 points as they move on to Germany for the next round at Sachsenring in one week’s time.

Maio

What a drama-filled and exciting race! Vale is always a rider to watch in Assen and this year he again made good on the promise. He really deserved the victory today and claimed his first win of the season with an amazing battle in extremely difficult conditions. There was no better way to come back from a challenging weekend in Catalunya. Maverick was looking to recover from a not so easy starting position and when he moved up to fifth place and started to really push, he suffered an unlucky crash in turn 17. It was a pity to see his race end the way it did, considering his potential. After all the emotions today, we have a few days to recover before we head to the Grand Prix in Germany, held in just a week‘s time. The track had been resurfaced and slightly modified, so we are eager to get work started there.

Rossi

I‘m so happy, and for different reasons, because it‘s a very important victory for the championship, but especially the feeling of coming back to the number one spot after one year is fantastic. Sincerely, I race with motorcycles for this feeling: for what I feel in the five or six final laps of the race. That‘s always great and especially after a year without a victory. It was a great race and a great battle with Petrucci and everybody else. I‘m also happy from a technical point of view, because we worked a lot on the bike and we changed the chassis and now I feel like I can ride the bike more in my own manner, in a better way. Everything is open and this year we discovered that, from one track to the other, the situation can change a lot. We have to wait for next week and try to be competitive also at the Sachsenring.

Maverick

I can’t explain what happened, because I don‘t even know why I crashed. I passed there 2000 times, but today was the day. I was pushing myself over the limit, trying to bring the Yamaha to the top and I think that if I hadn‘t crashed I could have reached the riders in front, because our pace was very fast. We need to learn that in qualifying the minimum you have to do is sixth or fifth, so I know that the mistake was made yesterday, not today. I was feeling great on the bike today. I was trying to maintain the tyres on a good level and preparing an attack on the last ten laps. I was riding in a good way and really smoothly on the entire track and I felt much stronger than the other riders, I was trying my best. This crash is something we can‘t explain, we can only learn from it, especially concerning qualifying. I knew this morning it was going to be tricky and tried my best: it was everything or nothing and finally I got nothing. We have to go for it the next couple of races and we expect something different.

 

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Ducati

Andrea Dovizioso moves into the lead of the MotoGP championship standings after finishing fifth in the Dutch TT at Assen. Jorge Lorenzo finishes in fifteenth place after changing bikes in a flag-to-flag race

Andrea Dovizioso produced another great performance today in the Dutch TT race at Assen to move to the top of the MotoGP championship standings. The Ducati Team’s Italian rider, who started from row 3 after qualifying ninth on Saturday, finished today’s eight round in fifth place as the half-way point of the season approaches. The last time a Ducati rider led the world championship table was the 2009 Italian Grand Prix with Casey Stoner.

After finishing the opening lap in seventh place, Dovizioso began a thrilling come-back which took him up to second on lap 21, when light rain began to fall on the Dutch circuit. After a terrific scrap with Rossi and Petrucci, who eventually finished first and second, the Italian rider was caught first by Marquez and then by Crutchlow and he finished his race in fifth without wishing to jeopardize his championship lead, especially in view of the tricky track surface conditions.

It was a difficult race for Jorge Lorenzo after the Spanish rider started from the seventh row. After moving up the field into twelfth by lap 18, Lorenzo then lost a couple of places in the next few laps when it started to rain and he opted to return to the pits for a bike change on lap 21, finishing the race in 15th place.

Thanks to Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Racing Team) finishing runner-up in today’s race, Ducati has now moved up to second place in the Constructors’ standings, one point ahead of Honda.

The next round of the championship is the German Grand Prix on Sunday at the Sachsenring circuit.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd
“Today’s race was a very difficult one and having to start from row 3 complicated things a bit. At the start I wasn’t able to be very smooth and I lost touch with the leading group, but I remained focussed to see where I could recover and when Viñales crashed in front of me, I pushed hard to get back up with the leading group. At that moment I was the quickest on the track and this is a good sign for our bike. When I came up on the leaders it started to rain but you couldn’t really see where the track was dry and where it wasn’t. For this reason I didn’t want to take any risks and I tried to finish the race in the best possible way to score some valuable points for the championship. We go back home in the lead of the table and it’s a new emotion for me because I’ve never been in the lead of MotoGP. I want to thank all my team because this weekend we again worked really well and despite the constantly changeable weather conditions, we made the right decisions, we stayed calm and in this end it all paid off.”

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 15th
“Today I experienced a race like the ones in 2014 or 2016: unfortunately with these changeable weather conditions I’m just not able to be fast. When it began to rain I thought that the situation was going to get worse and I decided to return to the pits to change my bike and go back out again on rain tyres. The rain actually didn’t increase and I had to settle for fifteenth place. Unfortunately we are still missing half a second a lap to be able to stay with the leading group, so now we have to turn the page as soon as possible and look ahead.”

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Tech 3

 

LCR

 

CRUTCHLOW CLINCHES FOURTH FOLLOWING FINE RIDE AT ASSEN

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow produced a superb performance at the Dutch Grand Prix to claim fourth place after a thrilling finale at Assen. The Briton held his nerve after a disappointing start and fought his way back to ensure he was contesting the podium places by the time rain started to fall over the closing laps of the race.

Having started from eighth on the grid, Crutchlow got away slowly but found some incredible pace as the race headed to its climax. Having passed Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso to take fourth spot on the penultimate lap, the LCR man then showed his class to move past Marc Marquez and into a podium position. However, the three-time world champion hit back at the second to last corner to retake third, leaving Crutchlow to settle for a fine fourth place after a memorable battle.

Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi claimed victory with fellow Italian Danilo Petrucci second on his Ducati.
Cal Crutchlow – 4th

“I’m pleased to finish and pleased to finish fourth. I was a little disappointed with my pace in the middle of the race, I had some sort of problem with my front tyre and I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to. But I still thought we were on for a good result and kept battling.
“I got a bad start and that really hindered me, as well as not starting from the front rows. I think that really cost me the podium or even the chance to fight for the win because the pace was not drastically fast. After it started to rain I kept a cool head, but I made a mistake by showing Marc (Marquez) and (Andrea Dovizioso) Dovi my hand, I went too early and should have passed them on the last lap. As it was, Marc just followed me and passed me on the second to last corner and there was nothing I could do.

“But it was a great fight, I really enjoyed it and credit to the podium guys.”

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Repsol Honda

Marquez scores momentous podium in Assen, tough race for Pedrosa
Marc Marquez took a crucial third place at TT Assen that, along with Viñales’s DNF today, reduced his gap from the top of an incredibly close Championship classification to just 11 points, despite currently being in fourth place behind Dovizioso, Viñales and Rossi.

Changing weather played a tricky role again today, when a light rain started to fall seven laps from the end of the race. Marc managed the situation prudently and, having fought within the top three from the start of the race, in the final two laps held off all the attacks from fellow Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, who was charging from the back.

The 94th podium of Marc’s career is also the 400th for the Repsol Honda Team.

After starting from row four on the grid, Dani Pedrosa was able to advance to eighth place, lapping on almost the same rhythm as the front riders, but he struggled to keep temperature in the tyres when the rain started and ultimately dropped to 13th position. Nonetheless, his championship position did not suffer greatly, as he now lies in fifth, just 28 points off the top.

The Repsol Honda Team now move to the Sachsenring for round 9 of the Championship next Sunday.

Marc Marquez
3RD
“I’m very happy with the podium and with our race, as we were competitive enough in the dry at this track, which isn’t one of the best for us. Of course conditions were quite tricky and in this kind of situation you can lose or gain many points. I opted for the ‘safe’ option, more or less. Maybe I would have been able to try and fight for the victory, but honestly I had some warnings and thought it too dangerous for the Championship, so I decided to be consistent in the race and to push hard at the end. I paid close attention as it was hard to understand where the limit was, but in the end I was able to manage well. We’re just 11 points down on the lead and that’s important, no matter the fourth position. Now we go to some circuits that could be better for us, so let’s keep working hard and see what happens.”

Marc Marquez
Dani Pedrosa
13TH
“Today the race was very difficult as I didn’t have a great start and I didn’t recover the positions I hoped to. I found myself quite a distance behind, despite the fact that I was able to lap well enough compared with the guys at the front. Later, when the rain arrived, I slowed down a little bit and immediately started losing temperature in the tyres. I know that I’m very sensible in these kinds of situations and that next time I need to manage that better. I have to find a way to maintain the temperature in the slicks because when they get cold it becomes very difficult to get back on the rhythm and regain confidence. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to manage it better this weekend. The positive points are that I could make some good lap times early in the race and that I lost just one point on the leader in the Championship standings.”

 

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KTM

MotoGP
As the half way point of 2017 season approaches, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team took their best ever MotoGP finish today in Assen, Holland after a dramatic race where mixed conditions and bravery were the order of the day resulting in Spaniard Pol Espargaro clinching 11th place as the team chips away step by step at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing.

The race started under grey skies that turned to drizzle and light rain nearly half way though, leading to some riders entering the pits and change motorcycles for ones with wet tyres. However, the crossover point of the wet tyres to be an advantage never happened so Espargaro, who didn’t stop, bravely threaded his way over a slightly damp track on slick tyres to gain the best points scoop so far for the Austrian manufacturer. Team mate Bradley Smith made a fantastic start only to be unlucky in running wide and falling off just before the rain fell. He was desperately disappointed but fortunately didn’t get any injury.

The KTM RC16 motorcycles had further development after the last race in Barcelona following a three day test in Spain resulting in data and hardware applied even if wet weather thwarted further confirmation of those tests at Assen. Now the team’s focus is already upon the German Grand Prix weekend at the Sachsenring in seven days time, the fourth race in five weeks.

Espargaro: “It was a typical Assen race as after ten laps some rain spots came down, but at the start in the dry I felt quite alright as we were about a second a lap off the top guys so it’s the best race we’ve done in dry conditions…so maybe we were going to finish about 35 seconds back (if it was dry to the end). This is important and very positive for us so I’m pretty happy, but we still need to continue working on the problems we know we have over the next races and tests. Overall though, it’s great to get KTM’s best MotoGP result, something I am very proud of as the guys here at the track and in Austria are working so hard.”

Smith: “I’m OK but just a little bit frustrated after I made a good start. In fact I felt pretty good and was in front of the group that was fighting for the top 8 but then they edged ahead as I had a new set up for this race, but I found my rhythm and got back into some low 1m 37s laps. However, later on I ran into turn seven a little bit too fast and tucked the front… I’m really sorry for the team and my crew as it’s quite frustrating that this has happened today but we’ll regroup and improve the motorcycle for Sachsenring next weekend.”

Mike Leitner (Team Manager MotoGP): “I call today typical Assen. This is what happens here! You think everything is done and then…it’s Assen. Maybe this is a reason why we choose soft/soft tyres but when the rain came some of the riders took the risk and some not so much, so I’m very happy that Pol made the correct decision. He did his max out there but for KTM it is the best result we have achieved in MotoGP and this is in the book. It’s another step. For Bradley it’s unlucky as he put so much effort into his recovery from Barcelona to here, especially at the beginning of the race he was in a great group, but he was there…then he ran wide and fell. At least he is OK after this so now he’ll be back at the Sachsenring and stronger with it too.”

 

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Michelin

MICHELIN AND ROSSI RESPLENDENT AT ASSEN
Michelin and Valentino Rossi produced incredible MotoGP™ performances in daunting conditions as the nine-time World Champion triumphed during today’s Motul TT Assen in The Netherlands.

Starting from fourth on the grid, Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was in the chasing pack that was led into the first corner by pole-setter Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3). The Frenchman then led the race for 11-laps despite the attentions of Rossi, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Danilo Petrucci (OCTO Pramac Racing). On lap-12 Rossi made his move, with a pass that was to prove important despite the large amount of work he still had to do in the closing stages.

This weekend witnessed a mix of weather from very warm and sunny on Friday, to heavy rain on Saturday. Today’s race started with overcast and cool conditions and the excitement was heightened as rain started to fall over the 4,452m circuit on lap-18 causing the white flags to be waved to allow the riders to come into the pits and change to wet tyres if they wanted to. Some runners chose to come in to change, but the front pack stayed out and produced some exciting battles as the race drew to a close, with Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) joining the action at the front as the rain continued to fall. Despite the diminished conditions the MICHELIN Power Slicks still gave impressive grip and the lap-times hardly dropped, as the combatants constantly changed places. The closing laps saw Rossi and Petrucci go head-to-head for the victory with both leading at various stages, before Rossi made a decisive move as he lapped a slower rider, and although Petrucci pushed to the line, Rossi took the victory by just 0.063 seconds. Petrucci had the reward of finishing as First Independent Rider and taking his second podium of the season.

Behind the front two a four-way fight was going on for the final podium place, with Marquez just taking the spoils on the line despite the valiant efforts of Crutchlow. Dovizioso was a close fifth, a position that saw him move to the top of the riders’ classification, as previous leader Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) crashed as he pushed hard through the pack to catch the leaders. The action continued throughout the field as Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) made his way from thirteenth on the grid to sixth. Karel Abraham (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) recorded his best result of the season so far to take seventh, narrowly beating Loris Baz (Avintia Reale Racing) and Andrea Iannone (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR), as the pair took eighth and ninth respectively. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) rounded out the top-ten, with his brother Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) following him home, a result that meant six different manufacturers featured in the first eleven-places, again highlighting the competitiveness of MotoGP. The full range of Michelin tyres were used throughout the weekend, with five of the six MICHELIN Power Slicks being chosen in various configurations for today’s race, again underlining the choice that is available to all riders to give them the best performance window for their riding style and machine.

Today’s event was watched at trackside by 105,000 spectators, which made it the most attended race of the year so far and all those watching were treated to a fantastic spectacle which produced the fifth different winner of this already intriguing season and leaves the championship wide open as the top-four riders are covered by just 11 points. Michelin and the MotoGP field will now make a trans-European journey this coming week as the championship heads to Germany and the ninth round of the season. The race at Sachsenring on Sunday 2nd July will signal the mid-way point of the calendar and be the last event before the summer break.

Valentino Rossi – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP:

“I’m very happy because the bike and the tyres worked very well for the weekend in all the conditions. It was very tricky to make the choice, because with the medium we know we are very strong, but the conditions were not fantastic so we had to wait until the last moment. At the last moment we risked a little bit and put the hard on because we know the hard was a bit better on the Yamaha and it worked. It was a great race and I am so happy!”

Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme:

“We have been pleased with the performance of the tyres here at Assen this weekend. During the wet and drying session on Saturday the wet tyres worked very well, times were considerably quicker than in similar conditions last year and we had very few crashes despite the riders reporting that the track was giving very little grip. The race today again saw most of the compounds being used in different pairings right through the field, but we did not foresee what would transpire later in the race. As the rain began to fall we would have expected lap-times to drop, but the guys at the front hardly slowed down at all. They produced some fantastic racing which was a perfect demonstration of the confidence they had in the tyres to push so hard in those tricky conditions. We are constantly trying to produce the best tyres for each track to allow the riders to give such excitement for the crowds and we will continue to that. Next week we head to Germany which will be a very tough test as the track has been resurfaced and we have no data for it, but we are sure we have the right tyres for it and we are ready for the challenge.

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