Moto3 Assen: Arbolino holds off Dalla Porta for victory

Tony Arbolino broke the run of new winners as he lead out of the final chicane and held firm to take victory in the Moto3 Dutch Grand Prix in Assen.

Moto3 again saw nothing settled until the final lap, with Arbolino and Dalla Porta taking their battle all the way to the line. The VNE Snipers rider built on his Mugello win after working hard to get to the front of the race as the lead constantly changed hands.

The Italian then slipped under Dalla Porta early in the lap and ran a perfect final last lap strategy to lead out of the final chicane, surviving a last attempt to slipstream past by the Leopard rider.

Dalla Porta took second for the fourth time this season, but slashes Aron Canet’s championship lead to just seven points after the Spaniard could only manage a best of twelfth after getting swamped in a hard battling group.

The Honda pair broke free at the front after Jakub Kornfeil was handed a long loop penalty for cutting the final chicane. Wisely, the Redox PruestelGP rider, who was leading at the time, built up the biggest lead possible on his KTM before peeling off allowing him to finish on the podium.

Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini) recovered well from his pre-race penalty which pushed him down the grid to fight back in a close race to come back for fourth.

There was overtaking aplenty in the lead group, which was at one point as big as 25 before it was split in two by a huge crash in the closing stages at turn five which took out Kaito Toba, Raul Fernandez, Tatsuki Suzuki and Celestino Vietti iin a domino effect.

The split also benefited Petronas rider John McPhee, who was already making good progress after a poor qualifying but in the smaller chasing group he shone, finishing an impressive fifth at the chequered flag.

Ai Oguru (Honda Team Asia) held on for sixth and was the top rookie in the race, ahead of Marcos Ramirez who picked up seventh, completing a strong showing for the Leopard Racing Team.

Polesitter Niccolo Antonelli crossed the line eighth - the SIC58 Squadra Corse had a strange race, he shuttled up and down the lead group before being forced wide and seemingly voluntarily taking the penalty loop which dropped him to 21st in the race he then rallied and climbed back to eight thanks to hard work and a few falls ahead of him.

Dennia Foggia qualified near the back of the grid, but showed how much progress can be made in the close lightweight class as he too staged a big comeback for ninth after running as high as fifth for SKy Racing Team VR46.

Alonso Lopez had a similar result to his race as he recovered from his pre-race penalty for a top ten finish for Estrella Galicia 0,0.

Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers), who lead briefly faded a little in the closing stages to eleventh, with Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) 12th.

The remaining points on offer went to Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider) in 13th, Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) in 14th and Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia) in 15th.

Home wildcard Ryan Van De Lagemaat (Qnium Racing KTM) finished his first grand prix in 22nd.

Tom Booth-Amos was the first to exit, spilling into the turn five gravel with 13 laps remaining. he rejoined but finished last.

Jaume Masia saw his bike give up at turn three with seven laps remaining.

Shortly after the big pile-up Darryn Binder tried one aggressive move too many and exited at the popular turn five. Andrea Migno also failed to see the end of the race, another turn five faller.