MotoGP: Quartararo storms to commanding victory at the Dutch TT

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) took a dominant win at the Dutch TT ahead of his teammate Maverick Viñales. The Frenchman swung the race in his favour early on, taking the lead on Lap 6 and making no mistake from there onwards.

A week after his worst-ever performance in MotoGP, Viñales looked reinvigorated the whole weekend, but a poor start cost him the chance to fight for victory. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) finally returned to the podium in third.

Quartararo takes a commanding 34 points championship lead over Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) into the summer break. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) now sits third in the title race with a 47 points deficit.

Quartararo stole the holeshot from second on the grid ahead of Bagnaia and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu). Poleman Viñales dropped back after almost making contact with his teammate on the run-down to T1 and slotted in in fourth. The front trio exchanged punches already on the opening lap and Bagnaia led the field over the line for the first time.

Bagnaia and Quartararo had great pace from the get-go and gapped the field while Viñales struggled to challenge Nakagami  for third and was under increasing pressure from Zarco. Mir, Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) were firmly in the hunt as well in the early stages.

Quartararo’s Yamaha showed superior corner speed but time and again, Bagnaia was able to retaliate with the sheer power of the Ducati. It took until Lap 6 that the Frenchman executed an overtake at T11 and managed to stay in the lead for good.

The championship leader wasted no time and had his head down with clear air in front of him to grind out a gap of more than a second after just two laps. Quartararo’s advantage was only going to increase while proceedings behind him were processional from P2 down to P7.

The pack started to gang up on Bagnaia and Nakagami moved past him for the first time on Lap 11, only for the Ducati to accelerate back in front down the start/finish straight. The Italian did a fantastic defensive job but his chances were busted on Lap 14 when he received a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits.

Nakagami got beaten up through the final sector of Lap 14, having to surrender positions to Viñales and Zarco, and successively dropped down to ninth. Miller meanwhile suffered a huge blow to his championship ambitions when he crashed and had to pick his Ducati out of the gravel trap.

Viñales had broken away from his rivals in second while a battle for third was raving between Mir and Zarco with Oliveira shadowing them. There was nothing to separate the two factory Yamahas in terms of pace, but the gap was already up to more than three seconds, keeping Quartararo firmly in control. The positions looked settled from third to fifth with three laps remaining, but the battle was on for P6 between Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Nakagami.

Viñales managed to cut the gap down to 2.7 seconds, but victory went to a dominant Quartararo. Mir kept Zarco behind him to return to the podium while Oliveira had to settle for fifth. Bagnaia took the flag in sixth ahead of Marquez who made up 13 places from 20^th on the grid.

Espargaro finished eight from Nakagami while Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) rounded out the top 10. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was 11^th after early contact with Zarco had sent him to the back of the pack while Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) could not exceed P12 after starting the race 21^st on the grid. The final points on offer went to Danilo Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing), Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) and Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama).