We have had 8 MotoGP Grand Prix so far this season and Pecco Bagnaia has won five of them, including the last three. Added to this is the fact that he has also won the last two Sprint races and is therefore closing the gap at a rapid pace with Jorge Martín, who continues to lead the standings.
Pecco has once again shown himself to be unstoppable at TT Assen, flexing his muscles, making no mistakes and showing off his credentials. A weekend of 10 that makes him the first rider to win two Sprints and two races in a row. And thanks to these results, he is only 10 points behind Jorge Martín. A Martín who had a great weekend at Assen with two second places, but who still failed to stop Bagnaia.
The main event of Assen is here: THE MotoGP RACE BEGINS!
Don’t miss it 🔗 https://t.co/R2yVf2Yjmv#DutchGP 🇳🇱 #MotoGP 🏁
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) June 30, 2024
And that’s despite Martín having had a consistent weekend, and being able to come back in the race after a penalty for impeding Raúl Fernández in Q2. But the strength that Pecco is showing in this part of the season is overwhelming. With that level, minimising the damage and losing as few points as possible when you can’t fight seems like a good objective from the outside.
The level that both of them are showing is so high that they have left the rest far, far behind. In racing, everything is possible and there is still a long way to go until Valencia, but unless things change a lot, the battle for the title will be down to just the two of them, despite Marc Márquez and Enea Bastianini.
SWORDS RAISED ⚔️
Di Giannantonio went wide… And Maverick Viñales took better advantage of it than Marc Márquez!#DutchGP 🇳🇱 #MotoGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/e0kvC38Dzd
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) June 30, 2024
While the former has not had a good weekend, and in addition to the falls in qualifying and the Sprint Race, he had to add a post-race penalty for tyre pressure which relegated him to tenth place, Enea climbed onto the podium after another great comeback. Bastianini is not shining as much as expected, but he is fourth in the general classification, six points behind Marc.
In Assen we saw more distance than usual between drivers
On the way to the podium, Enea deprived Fabio Di Gianantonio, who finished fourth, and Maverick Viñales, who finished fifth (positions exchanged due to a more than controversial decision by Viñales to step off the track), as well as Marc himself, with whom he had a clash. But what is striking about the Dutch GP is the great gap between the top five and the rest, since Binder, who was sixth, crossed the finish line 16 seconds behind, with Álex Márquez 21 seconds behind, Raúl Fernández, who was eighth, 22 seconds behind, and Franco Morbidelli, who was the last to benefit from Marc’s penalty, 23 seconds behind.
Breaking news on Alex Rins’ condition ⚠️@izaskunruiz and @amanda_gala_ They tell us that he has pain in his right hand and foot.#DutchGP 🇳🇱 #MotoGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/GjMAQKCknb
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) June 30, 2024
Perhaps part of that feeling of distance is because Aleix Espargaro, who would surely have been in the group, was unable to race after being injured on Saturday and Pedro Acosta crashed on the last lap. And speaking of crashes, we must not lose sight of Alex Rins, who was thrown off his Yamaha M1 in the first corner, has been injured and is out of this weekend’s German GP.