All good things come in threes. Or at least that’s true for Pecco Bagnaia. The start of the 2024 season wasn’t easy for the Ducati rider, who now seems to be going through a phase that we could almost define as omnipotence. In the Dutch MotoGP Grand Prix, the reigning world champion went on to take his third consecutive victory, which is actually five if you take into account the Sprints at Mugello and yesterday.
And today is a small page of history, because Bagnaia is the first to manage to win at the “Cathedral” of Assen for three years in a row since the days of Mick Doohan’s domination. But not only that, because he also reached Casey Stoner at 23 successes aboard the Ducati, becoming the most successful of the brand together with the Australian. Furthermore, it is also a significant success in terms of the World Championship, because the gap towards the leader Jorge Martin it reduces further and reaches 10 lengths.
This weekend there was really nothing for the Piedmontese’s opponents to do, who since Friday morning has shown that he has something more. And the proof came again today, because his was a solitary ride that started from pole position and ended under the checkered flag, where he showed up with a margin of over three seconds over Martin, closing a weekend that saw him take pole, two victories, and two fastest laps, leading every single lap. All this, lowering last year’s race time by 30 seconds. A truly monstrous performance.
However, “Martinator” also deserves a good performance, because today he found himself having to deal with a three-place grid penalty (he had hindered Raul Fernandez in Q2) which could have complicated his plans, but the Prima Pramac Racing rider he did great at limiting the damage once again. In the space of a few corners he was able to move into second position and for part of the race he even tried to cope with Pecco’s infernal pace. At the distance, however, perhaps he thought more about the World Championship than about the victory, also because among the riders in the top positions he was the only one to mount the medium tire on the front (the others all had the hard one).
While the race for the first two positions was fairly predictable almost from the start, the fight for third place was instead very heated, with at least four riders alternating on the lowest step of the virtual podium. In the end, Enea Bastianini prevailed, who, just like yesterday, was the protagonist of an amazing comeback from the fourth row, which he concretized in the last eight laps, managing to climb from seventh to third with a series of spectacular overtaking moves and even a light fairing on Marc Marquez when he overtook him at turn 1.
The eight-time world champion had to settle for the “wooden medal” this time, but his race was quite strange. He was in fact the one in third place in the early stages of the race, but then he clearly signaled Fabio Di Giannantonio to pass him, probably due to a problem with the pressure of the front tire. After the contact with Bastianini he had even dropped back to sixth place, but he was good at going to take back fourth, which however led him to slip to -51 from Martin.
Completing the top 5 is “Diggia”, who to be honest had crossed the finish line in sixth position, but then gave it up to Maverick Vinales, who touched the green at the last chicane on his Aprilia. For the Roman rider, however, it was a wonderful test, which shows that he is now ready to battle consistently with the best and which even gives Ducati a top five, with Aprilia instead not going beyond sixth place with its only rider. official in the race. Aleix Espargaro and Lorenzo Savadori, in fact, were forced to withdraw due to injuries suffered in yesterday’s Sprint.
It’s a shame for Pedro Acosta, one of the few to have mounted the soft tire on the rear, who slipped on the last lap, throwing away a seventh place after being in the small group fighting for the podium. The award for best KTM went to Brad Binder then inherited it, ultimately seventh ahead of Alex Marquez, Raul Fernandez and Franco Morbidelli, who completes the top 10 with the Prima Pramac Racing Ducati.
After yesterday’s good test, Fabio Quartararo began to struggle a lot again, only 12th at 24″ with his Yamaha. Things went even worse for his teammate Alex Rins, victim of a very violent highside at the first corner and which seemed rather with a sore arm. Honda also took home a few points with Johann Zarco’s 13th place, while Luca Marini once again sadly finished last, in 17th position. Marco Bezzecchi had a very disappointing weekend ended instead with a retirement following a crash at turn 5 after just a few laps.
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