By Dan Moakes
July 12 2013

MotoGP racing’s leading trio of Spaniards had filled the podium again in Catalunya, with Dani Pedrosa ahead of Jorge Lorenzo by seven points after six events, and Marc Márquez not too far back in third. The seventh Grand Prix of the season would be the Dutch TT at Assen, the ‘cathedral of speed’.

The pre-race story at Assen, where Lorenzo has won four times previously in all GP classes, and Márquez three times, was that the three main contenders all suffered crashes. For Yamaha factory rider Lorenzo, his accident in the wet on Thursday looked particularly serious. With a broken collarbone sustained, Jorge returned to Barcelona where it was fixed up with a titanium plate. He missed out on the second qualifying session on Friday, and it seemed he was not expected to race. In the event, he returned to the track and decided to take the start from twelfth position, at the back of the faster group of riders.

The Repsol Honda riders had their crashes on Friday, with Márquez therefore taking to his second place grid position still in pain; whilst Pedrosa’s late fall in qualifying meant he would only be fifth this time out, after taking pole for the previous pair of races. As it worked out, six of the nine fastest men had achieved their best starting positions for the season to date, with Tech 3 Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow going one better than before as he took his first pole position in Grands Prix. Stefan Bradl was also looking good in third position on the LCR Honda.

With his best grid position since 2010, seven-time Assen winner Valentino Rossi put his works Yamaha in fourth position. He had done no better than sixth on the grid in two years with Ducati. Also on the up were sixth man Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha), seventh man and star of the CRT class Aleix Espargaró, and ninth man Randy de Puniet (both Aspar ART). Fourth of the Hondas, Álvaro Bautistá was eighth for the GO&FUN Gresini team.

No Ducati pilots made in onto one of the first three rows of the grid, with works rider Nicky Hayden their lead man in tenth position. Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was back in P15, and the customer Pramac team pair were in P11 (Michele Pirro) and P13 (Andrea Iannone). That left the remainder of the CRT runners, starting with Héctor Barberá, fourteenth. Danilo Petrucci was behind Dovizioso, followed by Karel Abraham, Colin Edwards, Bryan Staring, Claudio Corti, Yonny Hernández, Michael Laverty, Lukáš Pešek; and finally there was Iván Silva, filling in for Hiroshi Aoyama in the Avintia Blusens team.

Conditions for the race were dry, cool and a bit breezy, and all the factory-backed riders opted for Bridgestone’s hard front tyre and a soft rear; except for Hayden, who took a pair of softs. At the start it was Pedrosa who led away, followed by Bradl, but the first left-hander saw Márquez move up from second to third on the inside line at the horseshoe-shaped de Strubben turn, which follows three consecutive right-handers. Behind, it was Rossi, Crutchlow, Smith, Espargaró, Lorenzo, Hayden and Bautistá, with Lorenzo quick to make up an additional position.

The final Geert Timmer Bocht (GT) is a right-left-right chicane, and a way to get past the man ahead is on the brakes for the first part. Rossi took third place from Bradl here, and moments later Lorenzo would gain a place from Smith on the inside for the first right at Haarbocht. Bradl was pushed back further by Crutchlow on the way out of de Strubben, with Lorenzo the next man through on the back section. Pedrosa already had a small margin over his team-mate, but lap two saw Rossi set fastest lap and close up on Márquez.

Crutchlow improved on the fastest lap, but his efforts to close the gap to third man Rossi were not enough to prevent an overtaking move from Lorenzo behind. This meant that the two factory Hondas now led the two factory Yamahas, but only until Rossi made up another place. When Márquez did not get a fully effective run out of GT, the Italian rider was able to get inside for Haarbocht and get through. Another fastest lap saw him start to catch leader Pedrosa. The leading quintet were clear of the next batch of runners by now, as Bradl dropped off their pace.

Bradl ran sixth, with Smith the man starting to get pushed back through the order. Espargaró was seventh, with Bautistá up to eighth, from Hayden, Dovizioso, Smith, Pirro, Iannone, de Puniet, Abraham, Petrucci, Staring, Hernández, Corti, Barberá and Laverty. Pešek would soon retire his Ioda-framed Suter-BMW in the pits. Ducati runners would be missing out next, with de Puniet passing Iannone and Pirro dropping behind Abraham. Meanwhile, Edwards would be progressing through the lower order.

It wasn’t long before Rossi made it through into the lead, passing Pedrosa into the GT chicane. With the Yamaha ahead, initially it seemed that Dani was matching the new leader’s pace. Lorenzo looked to be closing the gap to third man Márquez, but soon his physical condition started to tell as the gap grew again, with Crutchlow maybe being held up as he went on the attack behind Jorge. At around half-distance, Rossi was about 0.5s in front of Pedrosa, with a similar gap between Dani and Márquez.

Lorenzo’s showing in the face of adversity was not enough to keep him ahead of Crutchlow indefinitely, and the move came on the inside approaching the first right at GT. Cal had about 1.5s to make up in pursuit of Márquez, and he began to cut this back as the Repsol Honda team-mates squabbled ahead. Rossi was pulling clear, and Marc looked to get after him, firstly making a move on Pedrosa at Ruskenhoek, on the back section, only to put himself on the wrong line and let Dani back through. However, he did then get ahead at the chicane.

With Rossi on his way to an advantage of 1.8s, riding like the whole Ducati interlude had never happened, there was a close contest developing between the next three. Crutchlow was right behind Pedrosa, but at de Strubben had to run wide to avoid contact with the rear of the Honda. Márquez was easing out of range of his team-mate, and soon Cal would pass Dani for third at the chicane. Now with about 0.6s to make up, Cal homed in on Marc ahead, as Pedrosa’s pace dropped off a touch; and with Lorenzo now in a lonely fifth.

Rossi was on the way to his first win since Malaysia in October 2010, while second was undecided as Crutchlow was now on the tail of Márquez. The final lap saw the Spaniard have a minor moment at Haarbocht, and so slowing down a touch, and Cal was forced to run way off line to avoid clipping the rear of the Honda. From there, too much ground was lost to challenge further, but he still took third place. Pedrosa was only able to finish fourth, which meant a spent-looking Lorenzo only lost two points to Dani with his fifth place. Bradl maintained sixth at the finish.

Espargaró was the CRT winner as usual, finishing eighth after being passed in the race by Bautistá. Aleix reached the flag in front of five of the MotoGP prototype runners, including all four of the Ducatis, with the Desmosedici machinery off the pace. Smith was ninth, from Dovizioso, Hayden, de Puniet, Iannone, Pirro and Abraham, with no points scored by Petrucci, Edwards, Corti, Hernández, Barberá, Staring, Laverty and Silva.

A jubilant Valentino Rossi was back on top, and literally so when one of his supporters gave him a short piggy back ride. The Italian rider’s victory was his 80th in the premier Grand Prix class, but his first with one of the 1000cc bikes - he took 45 with the 990cc machines. It certainly seemed to signal that he was looking to find his way into championship contention, and of course it broke the run of seven straight wins for Spanish riders. With Jorge Lorenzo struggling, somehow Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez failed to capitalise, so the title chased remains open. Would you bet against a Honda or Yamaha victory next time out?

Standings after seven races: Pedrosa 136; Lorenzo 127; Márquez 113; Crutchlow 87; Rossi 85; Dovizioso 65; Bradl 51; Hayden 50; Bautistá 47; Espargaró 44 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Yamaha 152; Honda 151; Ducati 66; ART 44; FTR-Kawasaki 20; Ioda Suter-BMW 13; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.