In beautiful sunshine in Assen, Netherlands, Marc Marquez on his Red Bull Ajo Motorsport Derbi totally dominated the 22 lap 125cc Dutch Grand Prix from pole position.
Though chased hard by championship rival and fellow Spaniard, Nico Terol, he was never headed. When Marquez made a much better job of lapping the slower riders towards the end of the race, he opened up a clear advantage and was a comfortable three seconds ahead on the final lap.
The third victory in a row for Marquez propels the Red Bull athlete to within 11 points of the top of the world championship. He has already, at 17, become the youngest rider ever to win three 125cc Grand Prix in a row and he may well extend that run at his home Grand Prix in Barcelona on July 4.
Fellow countryman Dani Pedrosa also improved his championship standing in the MotoGP class with a beautifully crafted second place on his Repsol Honda. Though he had a troubled practice and only qualified on the third row in seventh place, he negated that disadvantage with his usual lightning start to charge into the opening corner in third place.
Jorge Lorenzo had the lead and was chased by fellow Yamaha rider Ben Spies, but Pedrosa forced his way into second after a few laps and quickly closed on Lorenzo. Pedrosa pushed him hard, but this time could not claim victory. The runner-up spot moves him into second overall in the world championship with 12 of the 18 rounds still remaining.
Most of the 97,000 crowd then stayed for the next race, the second Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup of the weekend. Daniel Ruiz, the 18-year-old Spaniard won a thrilling battle, taking victory ahead of Danny Kent to take the Cup points lead by a single point over the 16-year-old Briton. Californian 16-year-old Jake Gagne had won an equally intense Rookies Cup race on Friday.
Comments
Add a comment