Marco Bezzecchi dominates Dutch MotoGP with a sprint race win

Marco Bezzecchi continued to dominate the MotoGP field in Assen easily winning the Dutch TT sprint race ahead of Francesco Bagnaia.

VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi easily won the Dutch MotoGP sprint race. The Italian has been taking full advantage of Assen so far by winning every session. The battle for the podium, which was partly decided by a penalty, made the race intense all the way to the finish.

However, the Italian had to go about it the hard way after starting off in third place behind Bagnaia and an aggressive Brad Binder who sneaked through to second in the early stages.

Binder attempted to push Bagnaia, but was subsequently overtaken once more by Bezzecchi, who started to pursue the reigning champion. The Factory Ducati rider made a mistake on lap 4, which his adversary quickly capitalized on to get past him.

To avoid wasting any time, Bezzecchi kept pace with his Ducati colleague through the first set of corners. After a strong exit from Turn 5, he eventually made his move for the lead as he flew past the factory Ducati on the exit of Turn 7.

Bezzecchi took control of the half-distance race from this point on as he maintained the lead to the finish to win his maiden sprint race by 1.294 seconds over Bagnaia, who gained more ground on Jorge Martin in the points standings.

Binder crossed the finish line in third place after holding off a charging Fabio Quartararo during the final laps of the race. However, the South African was later demoted to fifth after receiving a long-lap penalty for a track limits violation on the final lap, which was later converted into a three-second time penalty.

As a result, Quartararo earned his first podium finish since taking third in the Americas Grand Prix in April as Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia moved up one spot to claim fourth place ahead of Binder.

Jorge Martin finished in sixth place after fading in the final minites soon after making progress early on coming from tenth on the grid.

Maverick Vinales was seventh on his Aprilia despite a slow start that saw him run 12th on the opening lap. The Spaniard got ahead of front-row starter Luca Marini towards the back of the grid.

Enea Bastianini finished ninth, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Marini. However, after the race, Marini was given a half-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. This moved Bastianini up to eighth and Alex Marquez of Gresini into ninth place and the final points position, leaving Marini with no result in tenth.

The highest-finishing Honda rider was Takaaki Nakagami who placed 12th just behind Jack Miller’s struggling sister KTM. Johann Zarco, riding for Pramac finished 13th after slipping out of the top 10 late in the race.

Marc Marquez had another difficult race on his factory Honda, finishing 17th overall despite nearly cracking the top ten early on. The six-time premier class winner ultimately trailed behind wildcard Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori.

After a strong start Miguel Oliveira appeared to be in contention for a top-ten finish but ultimately dropped to 19th, just behind teammate Raul Fernandez on RNF Aprilia. Meanwhile, Iker Lecuona advanced with the Honda RC213V to take the 20th spot, overcoming Jonas Folger of GasGas and Stefan Bradl of LCR Honda.

The only rider to not cross the finish line was Fabio Di Gianantonio, a Gresini rider who crashed out after struggling to finish in the top 15.

2023 DUTCH MOTOGP, ASSEN SPRINT RACE RESULTS