Italy’s defending champion Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia has now extended his 2023 MotoGP World Championship lead after a thrilling performance at round eight at Assen, in The Netherlands, at the weekend.
This time Bagnaia finished ahead of Mooney VR46 Racing Team rider Marco Bezzecchi, while his Ducati Lenovo Team-mate Enea Bastianini suffered a DNF.
Bagnaia got the better of Saturday’s sprint winner Bezzecchi (VR46 Racing) to take his fourth GP victory of the year at the classic TT Circuit Assen TT with another masterful display of riding.
Bagnaia was dominant over the longer distance, the Italian crossing the line ahead of Bezzecchi with a comfortable margin of 1.2 seconds.
South African Brad Binder (KTM) surprised the entire front row of Bezzecchi, Bagnaia and Italian Luca Marini to take the holeshot from fifth on the grid and he led for the first two laps but then Pecco upped the pace to take the lead from Binder.
For the rest of the 26-lap race, Bagnaia masterfully administered the gap over the chasing riders, first Binder then Bezzecchi, and he took the chequered flag first for the seventh time this year to boost his championship lead to 35 points over Martin and 36 over Bezzecchi.
It was an unfortunate race for team-mate Bastianini, the rider from Rimini sliding out at low speed on lap 7 in the tight turn 5 after working his way up to a positive eighth place from seventeenth on the grid.
“We improved this morning, we tried something different because we realised that this bike in certain situations needs a different setting, and it worked,” said Bagnaia.
“I’m happy for that and happy that my team gave me what I was asking for. Sincerely today was quite tough, very long and the conditions were critical for the tyres.
“This morning in the warm-up, everything was perfect but this afternoon the rear tyre was sliding around, I thought it was just me, but then I saw it was more or less the same for everyone. To be honest I prefer the longer race, because you have to administer and control everything more, I feel better doing that because sometimes in the shorter race you take too many risks.
“We’ve improved a lot in consistency in the last few races, we must continue like this. I’m happy to finish the first part of the season in this position; we can now go to the summer break with a positive balance of the first part of the season.”
The 2023 MotoGP World Championship now goes into a six-week summer break, with the racers next appearing on track at round nine at Silverstone (UK) on the weekend of August 5-6.
Photo courtesy MotoGP
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2023 MotoGP World Champs standings after round eight of 20:
| Position | Entrant | Wins | Points |
| 1 | Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team (GP23) | 7 | 194.00 |
| 2 | Jorge Martin Prima Pramac Racing (GP23) | 3 | 159.00 |
| 3 | Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team (GP22) | 3 | 158.00 |
| 4 | Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) | 2 | 114.00 |
| 5 | Johann Zarco Prima Pramac Racing (GP23) | 109.00 | |
| 6 | Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team (GP22) | 98.00 | |
| 7 | Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) | 79.00 | |
| 8 | Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23) | 77.00 | |
| 9 | Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) | 64.00 | |
| 10 | Alex Marquez Gresini Racing MotoGP (GP22) | 63.00 | |
| 11 | Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) | 57.00 | |
| 12 | Maverick Vinales Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23) | 56.00 | |
| 13 | Alex Rins LCR Honda CASTROL (RC213V) | 1 | 47.00 |
| 14 | Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 (RC16) | 42.00 | |
| 15 | Fabio di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP (GP22) | 34.00 | |
| 16 | Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU (RC213V) | 34.00 | |
| 17 | Miguel Oliveira CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team (RS-GP22) | 27.00 | |
| 18 | Enea Bastianini Ducati Lenovo Team (GP23) | 18.00 | |
| 19 | Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) | 15.00 | |
| 20 | Dani PedrosaRed Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) | 13.00 | |
| 21 | Lorenzo SavadoriAprilia Racing (RS-GP23) | 9.00 | |
| 22 | Jonas Folger GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 (RC16) | 9.00 | |
| 23 | Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team (RS-GP22) | 8.00 | |
| 24 | Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) | 5.00 | |
| 25 | Michele Pirro Ducati Lenovo (GP23) | 5.00 | |
| 26 | Stefan Bradl Team HRC (RC213V) | 5.00 | |
| 27 | Danilo Petrucci Ducati Lenovo Team (GP23) | 5.00 | |
| 28 | Pol Espargaro GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 (RC16) | 0.00 | |
| 29 | Iker Lecuona Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) | 0.00 | |