first corner, with Mir out-dragging
Quartararo, Viñales and Marquez
to Turn One. By lap two Rins had
just over half-a-second over the
fight for third. But exiting Stek-
kenwal, Rins’ GSX-RR “did more
wheelie than normal and then I
braked a little harder,” he said.
“I completely lost the front and
crashed immediately. I'm con-
vinced that our pace, our rhythm,
I was able to hold Maverick, to
fight for the victory.”
Rins wasn’t the only early
casualty. Attempting a comeback
that would have ranked among
some of his best, Rossi had climbed
to 11th by the fourth lap and was
running 0.6-second quicker than
his best time in practice. But as he
attempted to out-brake Nakagami
at Stekkenwal his front gave way,
taking both men down.
Back at the front, Mir sud-
denly found himself leading a
premier-class race for the first
time. “I was too nervous and I
lost the concentration a little bit,”
said the 21-year-old. A wide line
at Hoge Heide allowed Quartara-
ro to breeze by, with Viñales and
Marquez following suit. Andrea
Dovizioso’s brilliant start saw him
climb six places to fifth on his Mis-
sion Winnow Ducati, and Rins’ fall
promoted him to fourth, where he
sat for 12 laps, a few 10ths behind
the leaders.
Out front, Quartararo's
speed through the final sector con-
trasted to issues on the exit of De
Strubben. Each lap the French-
man battled violent tank-slap-
pers that forced him to close the
throttle. “It was my fault because
when I was behind Maverick and
Marc I tried to be even more on
the inside, but the bike was mov-
ing even more,” Quartararo said.
“Eventually I saw that they went
more toward the outside, and it
was much better. I think it was a
combination of the wind and me
doing the wrong line.”
Marquez seized the chance to
ride around the outside of Quar-
tararo before Ruskenhoek on the
11th lap, but a mistake at Turn
One allowed the Frenchman back
past. But soon the exertion on
Quartararo's right forearm began
to tell. “I couldn’t handle the bike
any more,” he admitted. Viñales
moved by with a brilliant two-in-
one move at Ruskenhoek, while
Quartararo's attention turned to
preserving his podium place.
For five laps, it looked as
though it could be the Marquez-
Viñales match everyone had once
hoped for. Ultimately, though,
Viñales peeled off a succession
of laps in the high-1:33/low-1:34
range that pulled him clear of
Marquez, who settled for second
with three laps to go. Viñales’ win-ning margin was a handsome 4.8
seconds at the flag.
“Already from Friday I felt
extremely good on the bike,” said
the 24-year-old Viñales, who was
celebrating his fifth MotoGP win.
“I was pretty strong for the last
seven, eight laps, the key point for
this race.”
Marquez was delighted with
finishing second and extending his
title lead to 44 points at one of his
more difficult tracks. Quartararo
cruised to third, with Dovizioso
winning out in an exciting three-
way fight for fourth. Morbidelli
nabbed fifth from Petrucci at the
Geert Timmer chicane on the final
lap, and Crutchlow said he fought
engine braking issues and front-
end instability for seventh. Mir
eventually faded to eighth, ahead
of Miller, who rode alone in what
he called “the most boring race of
my life.” Andrea Iannone finished
10th, best of the season on his
Gresini Aprilia.Fernandez Wins In Moto2
Brad Binder's Red Bull Ajo
KTM led a 10-rider freight train
for most of the race. Alex Marquez
clawed through to the lead on his
Marc VDS Kalex, but could not
break clear of the pack, and that
was his downfall. Lorenzo Baldas-
sarri on a Pons Kalex dived for
the lead at Turn Three with just
under two laps remaining but
tucked the front, crashing out and
taking Marquez with him. Augus-
to Fernandez inherited the win,
0.6-second clear of Binder and
3.7-seconds ahead of Luca Marini,
relieved to finish third on his Sky
Racing VR46 Kalex. American Joe
Roberts was in the points again,
finishing 14th.Arbolino Repeats In Moto3
Tony Arbolino on the Snipers
Honda became the first rider this
year to win for a second time in
Moto3. In fact, Arbolino's win end-
ed a run of 12 races with 12 dif-
ferent winners! The Italian teenag-
er was aided by Jakub Kornfeil’s
penalty for cutting the final chi-
cane on his Redox Pruestl KTM.
Leopard Honda's Lorenzo Dalla
Porta was second, and Kornfeil re-
covered for third.RESULTS
MOTOGP RACE (All on Michelin Tires)
(June 30): 1. Maverick Viñales, Spain
(Yam YZR-M1), 26 laps, 40:55.415,
107.559 mph; 2. Marc Marquez, Spain
(Hon RC213V), -4.854 seconds; 3. Fa-
bio Quartararo, France (Yam YZR-M1),
-9.738; 4. Andrea Dovizioso, Italy (Duc
GP19), -14.147; 5. Franco Morbidelli,
Italy (Yam YZR-M1), -14.467; 6. Dani-
lo Petrucci, Italy (Duc GP19), -14.794;- Cal Crutchlow, Great Britain (Hon
RC213V), -18.361; 8. Joan Mir, Spain
(Suz GSX-RR), -24.268; 9. Jack Mill-
er, Australia (Duc GP18), -26.496; 10.
Andrea Iannone, Italy (Apr RS-GP),
-26.997; 11. Pol Espargaró, Spain (KTM
RC16), -28.732; 12. Aleix Espargaró,
Spain (Apr RS-GP), -34.095; 13. Miguel
Oliveira, Portugal (KTM RC16), -34.181;- Francesco Bagnaia, Italy (Duc
GP18), -34.249; 15. Hafizh Syahrin,
Malaysia (KTM RC16), -34.494; 16. Tito
Rabat (Duc GP18), -48.357; 17. Karel
Abraham, Czech Republic (Duc GP19),
-1 lap; 18. Johann Zarco, France (KTM
RC16), -10 laps, DNF, retired; 19. Takaa-
ki Nakagami, Japan (Hon RC213V), -22
laps, DNF, crash; 20. Valentino Rossi, It-
aly (Yam YZR-M1), -22 laps, DNF, crash; - Alex Rins, Spain (Suz GSX-RR),
-24 laps, DNF, crash. Race Distance,
26 laps, 73.379 miles; Race Time, 40
minutes, 55.415 seconds; Race Average
Speed, 107.559 mph; Victory Margin,
4.854 seconds; Fastest Lap, Marquez,
1:33.712, 108.367 mph, Lap 4.
MOTOGP QUALIFYING (June 29): 1.
Quartararo, 1:32.017, 110.355 mph; - Viñales, 1:32.157; 3.Rins, 1:32.458;
- Marquez, 1:32.731; 5. Mir, 1:33.085;
- Crutchlow, 1:33.228; 7. Petrucci,
1:33.282; 8. Nakagami, 1:33.295; 9. Mor-
bidelli, 1:33.314; 10. Miller, 1:33.323; - Dovizioso, 1:33.692; 12. P. Espar-
garó, 1:33.762; 13. Bagnaia, 1:33.221; - Rossi, 1:33.466; 15. A. Espargaró,
1:33.547; 16. Abraham, 1:33.583; 17.
Oliveira, 1:33.706; 18. Zarco, 1:33.776; - Syahrin, 1:33.869; 20. Iannone,
1:33.960; 21. Rabat, 1:34.580.
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
POINT STANDINGS (After 7 of 19
rounds): 1. Marquez, 160 points; 2.
Dovizioso, 116 points; 3. Petrucci, 108
points; 4. Rins, 101 points; 5. Rossi,
72 points; 6. Quartararo, 67 points; 7.
Viñales, 65 points; 8. Miller, 60 points; - P. Espargaró, 52 points; 10. Crutch-
low, 51 points.
MOTO2 RACE (All on Dunlop Tires
and Triumph Engines) (June 30): - Augusto Fernandez, Spain (Kalex),
24 laps, 39:24.779, 103.085 mph; 2.
Brad Binder, Republic of South Africa
(KTM), -0.612-second; 3. Luca Marini,
Italy (Kalex), -3.686 seconds; 4. Thom-
as Luthi, Switzerland (Kalex), -4.028; - Tetsuta Nagashima, Japan (Kalex),
-5.391; 6. Andrea Locatelli, Italy (Kalex),
-13.127; 7. Stefano Manzi, Italy (MV
Agusta), -13.183; 8. Marcel Schrotter,
Germany (Kalex), -13.567; 9. Domi-
nique Aegerter, Switzerland (MV Agus-
ta), -19.792; 10. Marco Bezzecchi, Italy
(KTM), -21.291; 11. Fabio Di Giannanto-
nio, Italy (Speed Up), -23.591; 12. Jake
Dixon, Great Britain (KTM), -26.585; 13.
Lukas Tulovic, Germany (KTM), -30.817; - Joe Roberts, USA (KTM), -34.122;
- Iker Lecuona, Spain (KTM), -34.406;
- Steven Odendaal, Republic of South
Africa (NTS), -40.034; 17. Jonas Folg-
er, Germany (Kalex), -51.405; 18. Xavi
Cardelus, Andorra (KTM), -59.200; 19.
Alex Marquez, Spain (Kalex), -2 laps,
DNF, crash; 20. Lorenzo Baldassarri,
Italy (Kalex), -2 laps, DNF, crash; 21.
Xavi Vierge, Spain (Kalex), -5 laps, DNF,
crash; 22. Enea Bastianini, Italy (Kalex),
-5 laps, DNF, crash; 23. Jorge Martin,
Spain (KTM), -10 laps, DNF, crash; 24.
Sam Lowes, Great Britain (Kalex), -14
laps, DNF, crash; 25. Jorge Navarro,
Spain (Kalex), -14 laps, DNF, crash; - Remy Gardner, Australia (Tech 3),
-15 laps, DNF, crash; 27. Nicolo Bule-
ga, Italy (Kalex), -22 laps, DNF, retired; - Simone Corsi, Italy (Kalex), -23 laps,
DNF, crash; 29. Bo Bendsneyder, Neth-
erlands (NTS), -23 laps, DNF, crash.
Race Distance, 24 laps, 67.734 miles;
Race Time, 39 minutes, 24.779 seconds;
(Above) Augusto Fernandez (40) on a Kalex passed Alex Marquez and his
Kalex and Brad Binder (41) and his KTM to win the Moto2 race at Assen;
Binder finished second with Luca Marini third, while Marquez crashed.
(Below) Tony Arbolino (14) won the Moto3 race on a Honda, beating Loren-
zo Dalla Porta (48) and Jakub Kornfeil (84). Photos by Milagro/DPPI Media.
48—Roadracing World, August 2019