Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Yamaha) – this time his victory did not have an unpleasant aftertaste like before in Misano, because in contrast to the previous race in Italy he was also the first to cross the finish line in the “Cathedral of Speed“.

Aegerter wins ahead of Odendaal and Öttl

After the start, a three-way battle for the top developed between Dominique Aegerter, Steven Odendaal (both Yamaha) and Philipp Öttl on the Puccetti Kawasaki. Behind them there were six drivers who tried to keep up. After the first third of the race, they were still within 2 seconds behind the top trio, with Aegerter in front of Odendaal and Öttl. Above all, Can Öncü (Kawassaki), Jules Cluzel and Manuel Gonzalez (both Yamaha) made the strongest impression at this point. Randy Krummenacher (Yamaha) and Niki Tuuli on the MV Agusta were close behind when Gonzalez began to break away from the chasing group. In the finish chicane, the Finn fell seven laps before the end when he was scrambling for position 6 with “Krummi”, with which Tuuli already had to accept the fourth clear in the seventh race of the season. His compatriot Takkala was not doing better either and like the Pole Szkopek, he finished his race in the gravel. A little later, the Italian Casadei also crashed.

Steven Odendaal (Bardahl Evan Bros Yamaha R6) lost his hard-fought victory in Misano due to a questionable decision by the FIM commissioners due to a time penalty as a result of the long-lap penalty and its “disregard”. Interestingly, Toprak Razgatlioglu only received one warning in the WSBK race, although he was filmed by the camera on Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki for having committed a track limit offence at an early age, only this was obviously not seen and punished by the stewards. In this respect, the Turk would not have deserved his victory either if everything had been correct.

Öttl loses connection and Aegerter strong again
With three laps to go, the German Kawasaki driver only fought to secure the podium, while the “Domi-Fighter” made a sovereign impression at the front. At this point it was already clear that without a mistake by the Swiss, his rival from South Africa would have to be content with P2. While Randy Krummenacher had caught up with the Spaniard Gonzalez, who was lying in front of him, together with Jules Cluzel, the fight for fourth place was the most exciting moment of the race in the end. Raffaele der Rosa also fell and behind winners Aegerter, Odendaal and Öttl, the Frenchman managed to pass the “Krummenator” shortly before the finish, which meant that Cluzel was fourth. Below is the ranking of Assen’s first run.

The first interviews with the podium riders
Steven Odendaal was not entirely satisfied because he had tried a gamble with his team and tried hard tires. According to his own statement, he didn’t have a chance to fight for victory, and he wanted to do better on Sunday. Nevertheless, he agreed with second place, which is of course very important for the championship. Philipp Öttl saw his day as very good and after the other two had pulled him away from the pursuers, he was quite happy with 3rd place. Of course, Domi Aegerter was overjoyed after his fourth win in a row. Also, because this happened in front of the fans of his team, they are of course particularly happy to have won another time in the Netherlands.

Stand in the WorldSSP world championships after race 1 in Assen

1. Aegerter 144
2 Odendaal 122
3. Öttl 88
4. Bernardi 86
5. Cluzel 78
6. Gonzalez 74
7. Soomer 47
8. De Rosa 46
9. Krummenacher 46
10. Caricasulo 39
11. Bergman 34
12. Öncü 34
14. Alcoba 33
15. Tuuli 20

TT Circuit of Assen

The subdivision of the four sectors is shown in black. The course has 12 right and 6 left turns and is 4.542 km long, with a start-finish straight that is only 300 m long.

WorldSBK Assen schedule

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).

>WSBK Assen Preview see separate report on this page.