It was as you were when the race got underway as far as the top two was concerned, with Dixon leading Inde GASGAS Aspar team-mate Albert Arenas into the first corner. Alonso Lopez (MB Conveyers Speed Up), however, had launched well from fifth on the grid before passing Arenas for second at De Strubben and then Dixon for first at Stekkenwal. Marcel Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) moved into third when he passed Arenas at the Geert Timmer Chicane on Lap 4, in what was something of a breakaway quartet at the head of the field. However, Fernandez reeled them in and he gladly took fourth position when Arenas made a small error at De Strubben on Lap 5. Then, just up the road at De Bult, Schrötter picked off Dixon to move into second position and Arenas got back ahead of Fernandez, as home hero Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team) lurked in sixth spot. Arenas got back into the podium places when he overtook Dixon at the Timmer Chicane on Lap 7, before Schrötter hit the front for the first time when he got past Lopez as they ran down the back straight on Lap 8. Fernandez passed Dixon for fourth at De Strubben on Lap 9, before Lopez ceded second position to Arenas and third to Fernandez on a ragged 10th lap of the race. Schrötter looked like he might finally break through for his first Grand Prix victory until disaster struck for the German on Lap 12, when he crashed out at De Strubben and handed the lead to Arenas. On Lap 13, Lopez re-passed Fernandez at the Timmer Chicane, but the German GP winner prised second position back from the man on the Boscoscuro chassis at De Strubben on Lap 15. Meanwhile, Vietti and Ogura, who started the race as the top two in the Championship, were closing in on the lead group as they battled over eighth position. Both were on a comeback after tough starts to the race, Vietti having only qualified 11th before finding himself even further away from the top 10 in the opening corners, and Ogura having two big rear end moments within the first handful of laps which had dumped the Japanese rider as far back as 16th. Lopez dropped three positions to sixth when he ran wide exiting Haarbocht on Lap 16, promoting Dixon to the podium places again, as Vietti received a track limits warning. What would turn out to be the decisive lead change came on Lap 17 when Fernandez went underneath Arenas at De Strubben, while Bendsneyder sent the Dutch crowd wild when he passed Dixon for third just behind them. Unfortunately for the man from Rotterdam, he undid his good work with a slow run off the Timmer Chicane at the end of the lap. He was picked off by not only Dixon, but also Cameron Beaubier (American Racing), who got ahead of both of them. Dixon re-passed Beaubier moments later at De Strubben, and signalled to the American that they should work together to catch the top two of Fernandez and Arenas, who had taken advantage of the battle for third place to skip several tenths of a second clear. They did just that, as Ogura moved into the top five with a pass on Bendsneyder at the start of Lap 19, which opened the door for Vietti to follow him through. Ogura’s progress continued when he got through on Beaubier at De Strubben on Lap 20, while Dixon took second place from Arenas at the Timmer Chicane on that same lap. At the start of Lap 21, Beaubier crashed out of fifth position as he came under big pressure from Vietti, and Ogura was into the top three – 13 positions higher than he had been when he nearly got chucked off his bike for the second time – by passing Arenas. The Japanese rider went down the inside of Dixon for second position as they turned into Haarbocht on Lap 22, and Arenas got back in front of the Briton at the Timmer Chicane. Dixon got him back at the start of Lap 23, the penultimate tour of Assen, and Arenas was out of the race altogether when he dropped it at De Bult. That crash promoted Vietti to fourth, behind a top three of Fernandez, Ogura, and Dixon, and that is how they would finish – all within a second of each other – after an astonishing Dutch GP for the Moto2™ field. Bendsneyder claimed fifth on home soil and Lopez, who had started to become somewhat ragged, got home in sixth, ahead of Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team), Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team), Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team), and Filip Salac (Gresini Racing Moto2™). Also in the points, from 11th onwards, were Fermin Aldeguer (MB Conveyors Speed Up), Jorge Navarro (Flexbox HP40), Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Jeremy Alcoba (Liwui Moly Intact GP), and Barry Baltus (RW Racing GP). Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) was a notable among the non-finishers, throwing away third when he ran well wide at the first corner of the race, then crashing out altogether on only Lap 4.
#64 Bo Bendsneyder – P5 – +1,485
“I’m very happy with today’s race. It was great to ride in the front positions in my home Grand Prix and I think we did an excellent job together with the team. We were able to handle the pressure and we were close to a podium finish. Today we showed that we can fight for the podium and that was the most important thing. It is very good to go with this result to the summer break, we are going to rest but we are going to work very hard for the second part of the championship. I want to thank the whole team, especially my team, for all the great work done during this first part of the season and their consistancy. See you after the summer!”
Race results:
Source: motogp.com, badboybo64.com, stopandgo.es
