MotoGP Dutch TT Results, Race - Serene superiority

The eighth and final round of the first half of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship sees the series head to Assen for the only non-Grand Prix - by name - on the calendar: the Dutch TT. Francesco Bagnaia holds a 16-point lead over Jorge Martin heading into this round eight of 2023. This page will be updated with MotoGP Dutch TT results across the weekend.

Overview

Dutch TT - Bagnaia victorious in fine style as Binder penalised again

Sprint - Bezzecchi brilliance strikes again as he takes Assen Sprint win over Bagnaia

Qualifying - Bezzecchi continues Dutch Ducati dominance with first pole of the season

P2 - Pace continues for Bezzecchi as Marquez slumps to 19th after P2 crash

P1 - Bezzecchi fastest on Friday morning as Bagnaia struggles with stability

Dutch TT

The 2023 MotoGP Dutch TT saw Marco Bezzecchi start a full-length race from pole position for the first time since Thailand 2022. Having dominated the Sprint on Saturday with superior pace compared to his rivals, Bezzecchi could only manage second in Sunday's race, unable to defeat Francesco Bagnaia.

Starting from pole position, Bezzecchi lost out on the run to turn one, just as he did on Saturday. Unlike in the Sprint, though, it was Brad Binder, this time, who went to the front, while Bezzecchi was shuffled to third, also behind Francesco Bagnaia.

Bagnaia took the lead on lap three, but Maverick Vinales was faster, coming through the pack behind. The Spaniard had reached fifth place, but crashed at Stekkenwal, and his charge to the front was over.

By the time Vinales’ race was over, Bagnaia, Binder, and Bezzecchi were all escaping at the front. The latter was the fastest, as demonstrated by the pace he showed to close back in on the two riders ahead of him when a mistake at the Ruskenhoek left him with around one second to make up. It took him around two laps to bridge that gap.

The closest challenger to the front three was Aleix Espargaro, on the sole remaining factory Aprilia, but he could not close down the one-second gap in front of him to Bezzecchi. That was perhaps down to a broken right front wing after contact in the opening corner of the race with Luca Marini.

As the race approached half-distance, the three primary title contenders began to up their respective pace. Bagnaia was stretching away from Binder at the front, Bezzecchi was pressuring him from behind, and Jorge Martin, who had taken until around the 50%-distance mark to show any kind of pace at all, set the fastest lap of the race.

Bezzecchi took second place from Binder as the race entered its final 10 laps, and immediately adjusted his sights to take aim at Bagnaia, now over one second ahead of him.

Initially, Bezzecchi could not make any in-roads towards his Ducati stablemate, and, despite a push from the #72 with around six laps to go, Bagnaia still had over a second in hand over his Italian compatriot.

Bagnaia and Bezzecchi were both secure in first and second place, respectively, as they entered the final lap, but Brad Binder still had to fend off Aleix Espargaro.

That, Binder did, and he completed the top three at the line in a circuit which does not play to the strengths of the KTM (hard braking, hard acceleration), and highlights its weaknesses (changing direction). 

However, Binder did not complete the podium, because he repeated his ‘offence’ of the Sprint on Saturday, by cutting (extremely narrowly) the green kerb on the exit of Stekkenwal, where the track kinks to the left. His penalty was to drop one position, which demoted the South African to third place, and elevated Aleix Espargaro to his first podium of the season, and Aprilia’s first since Maverick Vinales was second in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Binder, then, was fourth, ahead of Jorge Martin, whose pace at the end was reassuringly strong, but who simply took too long to achieve a competitive pace in order to have a shot at the win, and who was a victim, like many of those ahead of him, of MotoGP’s current overtaking problem of front tyre temperature preventing overtaking. 

Alex Marquez was unusually uncompetitive this weekend in Assen, but stayed on when many fell off, and came away with a top six as a result.

Luca Marini struggled, like in Sprint, for pace throughout the race, and finished seventh, over 14 seconds behind Bagnaia, and 13 seconds behind his VR46 Ducati teammate, Bezzecchi, alongside whom he started on the front row.

Takaaki Nakagami had to serve a long lap penalty for track limits, but finished eighth, for Honda’s best result in a full-distance race since the Grand Prix of the Americas when Alex Rins won.

Franco Morbidelli finished ninth, and was the only Yamaha rider to finish after Fabio Quartararo crashed early on, a crash which Johann Zarco could not avoid. Quartararo was visibly in some discomfort with the toe he broke before the weekend while training, and was taken to the medical centre. He was then declared unfit, for further displacement of that toe fracture.

Augusto Fernandez completed the top 10, and Lorenzo Savadori took a career-best finish of 11th.

Marc Marquez pulled out of the race after aggravating the broken rib he sustained in Germany last week.

Full MotoGP results from the Dutch TT in Assen are below.

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | Dutch TT

Sprint

Having broken the lap record in qualifying earlier on Saturday, Marco Bezzecchi started from pole position for the MotoGP Sprint in Assen. It was a pole position he converted, taking his first Sprint win in fine style.

Surprisingly, from the second row, Brad Binder did not make the holeshot on the KTM, but he was second after the second turn, as Francesco Bagnaia eased Marco Bezzecchi out of room on the exit of the first turn, and the pole sitter dropped to third.

Binder was slightly over-riding in the pursuit of Bagnaia, and Bezzecchi pounced on that to reclaim second place on lap two. By now, Bagnaia was half-a-second clear, but the irresistibility of Bezzecchi’s pace soon became apparent. 

Bezzecchi took the lead at the end of the back straight on lap four, and his brief battle with Bagnaia meant that, when the reigning champion dropped to second place, he was immediately in the clutches of Binder and Fabio Quartararo, who had been fourth since the start.

Bagnaia found some more pace on lap five, but it was only enough for him to create some margin over Binder. By lap eight, Bezzecchi was over one second clear, and, although there was a late push from Bagnaia that reduced the gap to under half-a-second, the #72 was able to respond to that, and, by the beginning of the final lap, Bezzecchi was over 1.2 seconds in front of his compatriot.

Bagnaia’s attention, now, had to go rearwards, as Binder was closing back in, but he ran out of time. The South African also picked up a long lap penalty on the last lap for track limits, which cost him three seconds and dropped him from third to fifth.

It also promoted Fabio Quartararo to third place, for his first Sprint podium, and only his second top three finish of the 2023 season after his third place at the Grand Prix of the Americas.

Aleix Espargaro had strong pace, and passed a number of riders, including Jorge Martin, on his way to fifth place, but could not overcome Quartararo’s Yamaha ahead of him. Martin, meanwhile, finished a distant sixth, over 2.7 seconds behind Espargaro.

Maverick Vinales had a relatively anonymous race in comparison to his Aprilia teammate, Espargaro. The #12 could do no better than seventh, ahead of Luca Marini, who slumped to eighth after qualifying third. 

Enea Bastianini took ninth place, ahead of Alex Marquez, who completed the top 10.

Marc Marquez finished where he qualified, in 17th, and never showed any pace that might have seen him challenging for the positions he would like to do so for.

A post-race penalty dropped Luca Marini from 8th to 10th, promoting Enea Bastianini to his season-best eighth, and Alex Marquez into the final points position in ninth, while Marini was 10th.

Full MotoGP Dutch TT results from the Assen Sprint are below.

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | Sprint

Qualifying

MotoGP qualifying in Assen for the 2023 Dutch TT saw Marco Bezzecchi clinch the advantage, and take pole position for the first time this season.

Johann Zarco set the pace in Q1 with the first sub-1:32 lap time of the weekend to that point. That saw him through to Q2 with relative comfort, although Miguel Oliveira got close on a 1:32.087, which sent him through to Q2 in second place.

That, of course, meant that Marc Marquez, who finished Friday in 19th overall, missed out on Q2. Instead, he crashed into the back of Enea Bastianini while both were touring and trying to keep out of the way of riders on fast laps, while simultaneously trying to gain a track position advantage over the other - Marquez wanted to follow Bastianini, and Bastianini didn’t want Marquez to follow him, the Italian going slowly after saving s front slide at the first corner of this particular lap. 

The result was that Marquez hit the back of Bastianini’s Ducati when the Italian rolled the throttle and checked over his shoulder to make sure he was not getting in anyone’s way. It turned out that he was getting in Marquez’ way, but that was not Bastianini’s concern - as Marquez was, like him, no longer on a fast lap - and the crash was not Bastianini’s fault, as Marquez could have avoided it by looking where he was going.

In the end, neither rider made it through to Q2 and, ironically, they will start next to each other, in both the Sprint and full-length Dutch TT tomorrow, on row six, with Marquez 17th and Bastianini 18th on the grid.

When Q2 did roll around, it was the expected assertion of authority from Marco Bezzecchi, who was fastest - ahead of Francesco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales - after the first run. In comparison, last week’s ‘double’ winner, Jorge Martin, crashed on his first flying lap at De Strubben.

There was not much of a response from Martin in his second run, either, as he qualified only 10th, along with Miguel Oliveira (11th) and Jack Miller (12th) on the fourth row.

In contrast, Martin’s title rivals, Bezzecchi and Bagnaia, will start this weekend’s races from first and second place, respectively, as the former broke the lap record on the way to his second career MotoGP pole position, and his first of the season. 

When Bagnaia set his fastest lap of the session, good enough for second, he had Luca Marini in his tow. The #10 went third fastest himself, and was on a personal best lap on his next flyer, but crashed at Stekkenwal, which ultimately cost him no positions but did generate an amount of visible frustration for Marini at his own mistake.

Fabio Quartararo was on provisional pole position before Bezzecchi broke the lap record, but the Frenchman still had a strong showing in Q2 and qualified fourth, 11 places and almost one second ahead of his Yamaha teammate, Franco Morbidelli. 

Quartararo will be joined by Brad Binder (5th, top KTM) and Aleix Espargaro (6th, top Aprilia) on the second row. (The chances of a couple of Binder holeshots seem distinct.)
Maverick Vinales was seventh, ahead of Johann Zarco (8th) and Alex Marquez (9th), who was the last rider into the 1:31s in Q2.

Full MotoGP Dutch TT results from qualifying in Assen are below.

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | Qualifying

P2

MotoGP P2 continued in the positive conditions of the morning to offer all 23 riders the chance to both test race settings and try for a time attack to get themselves direct access into Q2. The biggest name to miss out on that access was Marc Marquez, as his struggles from the morning - and the season, really - continued, while Marco Bezzecchi ended the day fastest.

One of the technical highlights of P2 - at least, of those that were visible from the TV images - was the reappearance of Yamaha’s copy of Ducati’s rear ‘stegosaurus’ aerodynamic package on the back of Franco Morbidelli’s YZR-M1 in the first part of the session, and later on Fabio Quartararo’s machine. 

They seemed to help Quartararo, who kept them for his time attacks and ended the session in sixth, but not so much for Franco Morbidelli, who used them while he held up Aleix Espargaro in the middle of the Ramshoek, and proceeded to finish 16th.

Morbidelli’s fellow Italian, Francesco Bagnaia, was still struggling with rear stability in the first part of P2. He was able, nonetheless, to get himself into the provisional top 10 in the first half of the session, but the real time attacks were still to come.

For those, there was more progress on the #1 Ducati, as Bagnaia made his way up to second place briefly, before being displaced by Maverick Vinales, who started his fastest lap of the session with Marc Marquez in his tow, but the #93 Honda lasted only two corners in the wake of the #12 Aprilia before crashing at the Ossebroeken.

The yellow flags for Marquez’ crash caused some disruption for many riders, but not for Marco Bezzecchi, who improved on his P1 time late on in P2 to maintain his place a the top of the time sheets.

They also made no difference for Jorge Martin, who finished second, ahead of the fastest KTM of Jack Miller, who moved up to third place at the very end of P2.

The aforementioned Bagnaia’s progress from P1 to P2 was over one second, as he ended P2 in fourth place, 0.200 seconds off Bezzecchi.

Maverick Vinales completed the top five, ahead of the aforementioned sixth-placed Quartararo (top Yamaha, top Japanese bike); while Aleix Espargaro took seventh place on the second Aprilia, ahead of Brad Binder (8th), Luca Marini (9th), and Alex Marquez, who completed the top 10.

The top-placed Honda rider was once again Takaaki Nakagami in 14th, 0.872 seconds slower than Bezzecchi.

Full MotoGP Dutch TT results from combined practice, and P2 specifically, in Assen are below.

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | Combined Practice

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | P2

P1

The 2023 Dutch TT began in perfect conditions in MotoGP P1, with warm track temperatures and mostly clear skies. Marco Bezzecchi set the fastest time, and leads the way into this afternoon's P2 session.

Despite the good conditions, there were a number of crashes. There was an early crash for Augusto Fernandez, who crashed at Mandeveen, and another for Miguel Oliveira, who crashed at Haarbocht. Enea Bastianini also crashed at the same corner as Fernandez, although his Ducati Desmosedici seemed to come off a fair bit worse than Fernandez' GasGas-branded KTM RC16. Like Fernandez, though, Bastianini was fine. Johann Zarco was the next to fall, at the Ramshoek, and he, too was okay.

By now, the session had entered the final 15 minutes, which meant the time to push for a hot lap was approaching. It took another 10 minutes for the first move to be made, and it was made by Jorge Martin, who moved up to second place. At the same time, his title rival, Francesco Bagnaia, was having a complicated session, struggling with stability in hard braking and especially in the high speed corners. The Italian ran on twice in the first half of the session at the Ruskenhoek, and had another moment in the final minutes at the Ramshoek, as well as a run-on at Haarbocht.

That final moment at the Ramshoek effectively ended Bagnaia's session. He entered the pits immediately after that and did not exit again in time to make a final lap, so he ended P1 in 12th.

In contrast, Marco Bezzecchi had a brilliant morning, and the Italian - who finished second to his compatriot, Bagnaia, at last year's Dutch TT - was over 0.3 seconds clear by the end of P1.

His closest challenger was Maverick Vinales, who was the only non-Ducati in the top four on his Aprilia RS-GP. Behind the Spaniard was his compatriot, Alex Marquez, while the French duo of Johann Zarco (4th) and Fabio Quartararo (5th, top Yamaha, top Japanese bike) rounded out the top five.

Luca Marini was sixth, ahead of an impressive Takaaki Nakagami (7th, top Honda), the aforementioned Martin (8th), Jack Miller (9th, top KTM), and Aleix Espargaro, who completed the top 10.

Full MotoGP Dutch TT results from P1 in Assen are below.

2023 MotoGP Dutch TT Results | TT Assen | P1

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