Valentino Rossi won his first race of the season in a dramatic and action packed race today at Assen. Rossi won the Dutch Grand Prix after fighting long and hard with compatriot, Danilo Petrucci, of Octo Pramac Ducati. Petrucci settled for second. Behind the Italian duo was Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda, who took the final spot on the podium by narrowly beating LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.
The DutchGP turned out to be a real nail-biter as Rossi, Petrucci and Dovizioso dueled for the win in the closing stages of the race. Dovizioso, however, made a mistake and went wide, allowing Petrucci and Rossi to break away. Petrucci, meanwhile, gave his all to pip the Doctor, but was held by backmarkers in the closing laps, thereby, losing valuable time to Rossi.
Behind them, Marquez caught up with Dovizioso and overtook him for third spot. Dovizioso then dropped into the clutches of Crutchlow, who also tried his best to haunt Marquez, but couldn’t quite manage to get the better of the Spaniard. Crutchlow settled for fourth ahead of Dovizioso.
Jack Miller of Marc VDS Racing finished sixth, followed by Karel Abraham (Aspar Ducati) in seventh and Loris Baz (Avitia Ducati) in eight. Factory Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone managed to finish within points in ninth, while Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia Gresini completed the top ten.
Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda was 13th while pole-sitter Johan Zarco of Tech3 Yamaha finished the race in 14th after he switched to wet tyres in the closing stages - he was also penalised for over-speeding in the pits. Jorge Lorenzo struggled yet again in the wet as he finished 15th.
The biggest turnaround in the championship, though, was the crash of Maverick Vinales, who was leading the championship before today's race. Vinales’ DNF today meant he lost his lead to Dovizioso. Dovizioso now leads with 115 points, followed by Vinales at 107. Rossi’s win today helped him move up the order by two places and he now sits third with 108 points.
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