Jake Dixon takes his first-ever Grand Prix win at Assen after an incredible race. He was joined by Ai Ogura and Pedro Acosta on the podium.
Both Alonso Lopez and Ogura had a good start off the line, but Lopez was able to hold onto the lead from pole position. Sam Lowes and Dixon lost places off the start with Lowes dropping to tenth. Tony Arbolino capitalised on the bad starts and moved himself up from tenth on the grid to sixth place.
Into the final chicane, Acosta was able to get past the championship leader Arbolino. The Spaniard continued to ride fast as he set the fastest time on the second tour of the circuit.
Lopez began to extend his lead out from Ogura to over half a second. Fermin Aldeguer was riding in fourth place but continued to lose time to the riders ahead of him, dropping over one second behind Dixon on the third lap.
Arbolino was unable to continue his move up the field and started falling down the grid from lap five.
Acosta started to close the gap to Dixon, who in turn was attempting to get past Ogura but failed.
Dixon and Ogura started to catch up to then race leader Lopez by lap six and worked together to bring the gap down.
Aldeguer cut the chicane on lap seven and was given a long lap penalty as the stewards determined that he did not lose enough time when returning to the track. The Beta Tools SpeedUp rider was in fourth place when it was given.
Dixon finally got past Ogura into turn one on lap nine and Arbolino was able to get past Albert Arenas on the same lap. After dispatching Ogura, Dixon continued to close in on Lopez.
On lap ten, Dixon looked for a move past Lopez at turn one but was unable to get past. Somkiat Chantra crashed at turn one on the same lap, causing a yellow flag in sector one.
The long lap loop had been catching some riders out, but Aldeguer completed it without an issue. He went into it fast but was still able to brake when he needed to and did not venture onto the green. Due to this, Arbolino made a mistake allowing Aron Canet to get past.
The battle for fourth place between Acosta and Ogura continued through lap eleven with the Spaniard trying to move on the Japanese rider but it could not stick. Dixon was also looking for a space around Lopez to try and take the lead.
Dixon got a good run out of the final corner and was able to overtake Lopez into turn one to lead the race. After this overtake, Lopez began to drop down the order as Ogura was able to pass him into the final chicane and Acosta passed him on the next lap.
Ogura and Acosta were both faster than Dixon on lap fourteen, eating slightly into his lead and the Brit lost the lead of the race on lap fifteen by running wide at turn five. But into the final chicane, Acosta lost front grip and had to make an amazing save to keep himself in the race, dropping himself to third. The stewards gave Acosta a long lap penalty for this due to him not losing one second in the sector.
After these mistakes, Ogura was able to extend the lead at the front of the race to just over one second, but Dixon was able to save some tyre and started to catch up to the Japanese rider. He began setting personal best laps, slowly reducing the gap between himself and first place.
Acosta took his long lap penalty on the nineteenth lap but did make a mistake by running onto the green paint. This would usually mean that the rider would need to retake the loop, but the stewards were happy with the penalty, even though he did not lose any places.
Dixon was able to close the gap up to less than two-tenths of a second on lap nineteen and got a brilliant drive out of the final chicane on the following lap. The slipstream was on the side of Dixon who sped past Ogura across the start-finish straight, but they touched into the first corner. Ogura ran wide but did not drop any places.
The lead into the final lap for Dixon was over one second and he comfortably completed the final tour of the circuit to cross the line in first place to win his first-ever Grand Prix race.
Aldeguer improved up to fourth place and was looking to make a move on Acosta but was unable to.
Lopez finished the race in sixth place ahead of Arbolino, Manuel Gonzalez, Arenas and Vietti who closed out the top ten.
Feature Image Credit: MotoGP
| DUTCH MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, ASSEN – RACE RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Jake Dixon | GBR | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 35m 43.411s |
| 2 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 35m 44.745s |
| 3 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 35m 47.859s |
| 4 | Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 35m 47.898s |
| 5 | Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 35m 48.295s |
| 6 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 35m 52.966s |
| 7 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 53.036s |
| 8 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 35m 53.958s |
| 9 | Albert Arenas | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 35m 54.026s |
| 10 | Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 35m 54.172s |
| 11 | Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 59.375s |
| 12 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 36m 1.645s |
| 13 | Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 36m 3.819s |
| 14 | Darryn Binder | RSA | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 36m 4.050s |
| 15 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 36m 7.903s |
| 16 | Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 36m 12.827s |
| 17 | Carlos Tatay | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 36m 15.851s |
| 18 | Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 36m 18.428s |
| 19 | Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 36m 18.646s |
| 20 | Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 36m 33.805s |
| 21 | Taiga Hada | JPN | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 36m 53.179s |
| 22 | Yeray Ruiz | SPA | Forward Team | (Forward) | +3 laps |
| Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Borja Gomez | SPA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Alex Escrig | SPA | Forward Team | (Forward) | DNF | |
| Izan Guevara | SPA | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Sean Dylan Kelly | USA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | DNF | |