Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team completed a perfect weekend at Assen with an incredible victory in today’s race. Great comeback for Enea Bastianini, who took third position at the end of an excellent performance in the second part of the race.
Bagnaia once again started perfectly from pole, managing to gain a small margin over his pursuers on the first lap. In the following laps, Pecco found himself with Martín as the only rider capable of not losing contact at the head of the race. Thanks to an unparalleled race pace, which also saw him set the new race lap record of 1:31.866, the Piedmontese driver managed to overcome the Spaniard’s resistance and fly undisturbed towards the checkered flag. After this success, Bagnaia brings the successes obtained with Ducati in MotoGP to 23, equaling the current record held by Casey Stoner.
After a more complex first phase of the race than expected, Bastianini managed to find the right feeling with his Desmosedici GP and, thanks to excellent lap times, he returned to the group fighting for the podium (made up of four other riders). Enea’s second half of the race was perfect and in five laps he managed to go from seventh to third place, then defending the position until the finish line. At the end of the #DutchGP, Francesco Bagnaia finds himself just 10 points from the top of the standings in second place, with Bastianini fourth, 64 points behind Martín. The Ducati Lenovo Team remains in command of the team classification with 326 points, with Ducati at the top in the constructors’ classification (278 points). The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action in less than five days for the German GP, scheduled at the Sachsenring from 5 to 7 July.
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st: “I really enjoyed this weekend and everything went perfectly. I want to thank the team because we did a fantastic job this weekend: already on Thursday we had a clear idea about the bike set-up and in FP1 we were pretty much fine. The race was 30 seconds faster than last year, which is incredible. I was able to be fast and precise, the weather was fantastic and so we were able to show our full potential. Now we are off to Sachsenring where I expect two very close races.”
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 3rd: “It was incredible, even if the race was a bit strange. I tried to push from the beginning but I was struggling a bit with the rear, especially coming out of the right-hand corners. The feeling improved lap after lap and, when the others dropped a bit, I kept the pace and was able to push a bit more. I went back to the riders fighting for the podium: I tried, I had fun making several overtaking moves and I managed to get third place. Obviously I knew that Pecco was out of our reach this weekend and Martín was also good at keeping up with him, so it’s okay like this. I’m very happy and I thank the team for the work done because two days ago we weren’t in a position to do well, while now we are here on the podium”.
Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager): “It was an incredible weekend, after the memorable one at Mugello. Pecco had a flawless weekend, setting it up perfectly from Friday and continuing in the same way until the checkered flag today. I have to congratulate him because once again he showed what a champion he is. Enea also had a great race today and I think he could have fought for at least second place if he hadn’t started from the fourth row. Seeing him overtake his opponents in such a convincing and precise way is certainly a great sign, and we hope he can continue the trend at Sachsering”.
