Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) as his opponents saw him from halftime at the Dutch GP – the young man from Nice is currently in a class of his own.

Quartararo flawless – Marquez back on the floor

While his team-mate Maverick Viñales snatched pole position from him on Saturday, the big hour for the French came in the race. One had the impression early on that Francesco Bagnaia, who was initially lying in front of him, was holding him back a little. But Fabio Quartararo passed the Ducati works driver several times, but was immediately caught again on the start-finish straight. Then the Yamaha Hope tried it a little earlier than before the finish chicane, and promptly the Italian didn’t make it past him before Turn 1. From then on the cheese was bitten and immediately the world championship leader pulled away slightly and then confidently expanded his lead. The winner of the German GP was far less convincing than the Yamaha ace on the first two days. Marc Marquez crashed heavily on Friday and, after an embarrassing but unsuccessful pursuit of Zarco in Q1, flew into the gravel again. He moved up early in the race, but had to be content with seventh place in the end.

Marc Marquez and his Repsol Honda in the gravel – the Catalan has not yet forgotten both how to win and how to fall frequently. As we have known since the German GP, everything has to be right for a triumph, and otherwise it often looks like this picture.

The comeback of Maverick and the many losers

For the Monster Energy Yamaha, often referred to as a lucky bag, his second place came just in time after the pointless disaster at the Sachsenring before the summer break. But not for his contract extension with the Yamaha factory team, one wants to believe the rumours in the paddock. The voices are getting louder and louder claiming that his collaboration with Monster Energy Yamaha is coming to an end. The Catalans are supposed to go to Aprilia, and so we leave that for now. In addition to Viñales, the reigning world champion Joan Mir and the World Cup runner-up Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati were able to convince. After the very good results in the last few races. Otherwise, there was little shine and Oliveira’s fifth place, for example, was the Portuguese’s worst result since his retirement at Le Mans.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati Racing Team) missed the podium by 4 tenths, but he only lost 3 points to Joan Mir and of course additional points to his compatriot Quartararo as world championship leader. Nevertheless, the fast Frenchman remained the best Ducati rider in Assen and is still second in the World Championship.

The big losers of the Dutch GP: Miller, Lecuona and Rossi
Of course, there were a lot of losers in Assen, but three of them stood out in particular. With Valentino Rossi, Iker Lecuona and Jack Miller these are hardly surprising three of the four unusual drivers. Jorge Martin had given up, but the old master ended a difficult weekend with his crash in Turn 5, as feared, with a complete disaster. Anything other than the decision to resign Valentino Rossi would meanwhile hardly be understood. The record winner from Assen was fourth from last when he landed roughly in the gravel trap on the fifth lap. A little later, and much more harmless, it got Miller and Lecuona, both in the same company. For the Australian, this meant the fall from P3 to World Championship position 5 and the Spaniard now has very poor cards in the fight for second place alongside rookie Remy Gardner for 2022 at Tech 3 KTM.

Danilo “Petrux” Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM) was only third best of the oranges with 13th place, but in the fight to stay with KTM he currently has clearly the better cards in hand than Lecuona.

Honda and the other disappointments
With Takaaki Nakagami, HRC Honda initially had a hot iron in the battle for the podium. By lap thirteenth, the Japanese was on track for his first MotoGP podium of his career. After a mistake, however, he then fell back a little and thanks to a somewhat violent action by Joan Mir he crashed a little later to P9 and in the end was at least ninth ahead of Pol Espargaró. Despite three drivers in the top ten, Honda cannot be absolutely satisfied with Marc Marquez as only seventh. The same applies to KTM, despite Miguel Oliveira’s P5. Because Binder and Petrux only finished 12th and 13th, the oranges even got significantly fewer points than Honda. With the world championship ranks seven and nine for Oliveira and Binder, it is more than just a step to the world championship title, which the unworldly KTM sports director Pit Beirer had spoken of before the start of the season. Without the ongoing failure of Alex Rins, Suzuki would be worlds ahead of Honda and the Oranges. Nevertheless, defending champion Mir is fourth in the intermediate ranking.

Marc Marquez and his Repsol Honda (the bike on the left) in the gravel – the six-time MotoGP world champion was again not at his best just one weekend after his victory at the Sachsenring. Rank 7 was no better than the result on his comeback in Portugal, with a lot of theatricality about his condition. But now results are required and excuses no longer count.

Assen result and team- with manufacturer standings

World Championship before the summer break for all classes at a glance

Combined provisional calendar MotoGP and WorldSBK

The Texas GP in Austin was rescheduled, while the Japanese Grand Prix was completely cancelled. After Las Termas in Argentina and the KymiRing in Finland, Motegi is now the third victim in the second year of the allegedly already overcome corona pandemic. Due to the bad planning by FIM and Dorna with the original calendar, countless modifications have already been made. In addition, six MotoGP races are now planned for the same weekend as WorldSBK, which is marked in red below. This is terrible for the near-series World Championship, especially its teams and sponsors. It costs attention and audience ratings because, as a rule, and often wrongly enough, the Prototype World Cup attracts more attention from fans and the public. After all, in the MotoGP summer break after the Dutch GP, the WSBK with Donington Park and Assen has two interesting events pending during this time. Then it comes with Most and at the same time Spielberg, the next date collision of the two series.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).