Francesco Bagnaia got the better of yesterday’s Sprint winner Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Racing) to take his fourth GP victory of the year at the classic TT Circuit Assen TT with another masterful display of riding. Bagnaia was dominant over the longer distance, the Italian crossing the line ahead of Bezzecchi with a comfortable margin of 1.2 seconds.
Binder (KTM) surprised the entire front row of Bezzecchi, Bagnaia and Marini to take the holeshot from fifth on the grid and he led for the first two laps but then Pecco upped the pace to take the lead from the South African.
For the rest of the 26-lap race, Bagnaia masterfully administered the gap over the chasing riders, first Binder then Bezzecchi, and he took the chequered flag first for the seventh time this year to boost his championship lead to 35 points over Martin, fifth today for Pramac Racing, and 36 over Bezzecchi.
It was an unfortunate race for teammate Enea Bastianini, the rider from Rimini sliding out at low speed on lap 7 in the tight turn 5 after working his way up to a positive eighth place from seventeenth on the grid.
