Assen Moto3: Bagnaia gets first Mahindra win in epic battle
Francesco Bagnaia emerged with his first ever Grand Prix win and a first for Mahindra as a constructor at the end of a thrilling Moto3 race at Assen that saw the top six split by only 0.161s.
Francesco Bagnaia, Aspar Team Mahindra
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The last laps of the race boiled down to a fight between Bagnaia and four of his fellow Italians, Romano Fenati, Andrea Migno, Fabio di Giannantonio and Niccolo Antonelli, all of whom led at various stages.
Also in the lead group for most of the race was points leader Brad Binder, before the South African suffered a moment in the high-speed final sector, going off track and rejoining after losing considerable ground.
With three laps to go, Fenati led the way and had a small cushion over the opposition, before Antonelli surged his way into second on the penultimate tour.
But it was Bagnaia who came from third to seize the top spot for the start of the final lap, ahead of Antonelli and Fenati, although Antonelli then managed to grab the advantage of Turn 1.
Fenati followed him through to go second, before taking the lead into Ruskenhoek chicane, which he held until the very closing stages.
On the run to the flag, Migno managed to slipstream his way from fifth to lead heading into the last chicane, only for Bagnaia to get a fractionally better exit and win the battle to the line by 0.018s.
Migno finished second, but was demoted a place by the stewards for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his move into the lead.
That promoted di Giannantonio to the runner-up spot, the Gresini rider matching his performance at Mugello, with Migno getting his first podium finish in third.
Fenati and Antonelli found themselves demoted to fourth and fifth in the final shuffle, with Jules Danilo completing the top six fractionally behind his Ongetta teammate.
Incidents aplenty
Niccolo Bulega had been in the lead battle for a large part of the race, but lost ground when he came tangled up with poleman Enea Bastianini, who crashed out with four laps remaining as a result.
Bulega, who recently signed a two-year extension to his Sky Racing VR46 deal, finished seventh in the final reckoning, ahead of fellow rookies Joan Mir and Bo Bendsneyder, who took his best yet Grand Prix result in ninth on home soil.
Lorenzo Dalla Porta, standing in for injured title contender Jorge Navarro at Estrella Galicia Honda, finished 10th - two places ahead of Binder, who continues to lead the standings by 48 points from the Spaniard.
Among those to crash out of the race was the other Estrella Galicia rider, Aron Canet, who was involved in a big incident at the final chicane with Juanfran Guevara in which the latter was lucky to avoid being hit by Canet's flying bike.
Bagnaia's Aspar Mahindra teammate Albert Arenas - substituting for Jorge Martin - was an early casualty after crashing out on the first lap, while Gabriel Robrigo and Fabio Quartararo both dropped out of the leading group on the second lap as Quartararo hit Rodrigo's stricken bike.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments