Dutch TT Assen Grand Prix race result and times: Rossi is back, Pedrosa struggles, and Lorenzo grits his teeth
It’s always hard to get a headline for races as complicated as the Assen TT was this year. To summarise, Valentino Rossi rode an excellent race and took his first win for two and a half years. Marc Marquez narrowly snatched second place from a galloping Cal Crutchlow. Dani Pedrosa meanwhile wilted in the last few laps to only manage 4th. Jorge Lorenzo, despite having surgery a matter of hours before the race, still came home in 5th, just 15.5 seconds behind Rossi.
The biggest headline is Valention Rossi’s win. You’ll read everywhere about how great he feels and how amazing it was, but, when it comes down to it, how did he win?
Simple. He was the fastest rider.
Looking at the fastest laps of the race, Valentino sits at the top with a 1’34.894, a lap only half a second slower than Crutchlow’s pole lap, and faster than Rossi’s own QP time. OK, Marquez and Crutchlow were within a tenth, but Rossi’s out and out pace was there.
After the first lap, Rossi reeled off two 1’35.0 laps, laps faster than anyone else. He was also consistent; both laps were within 0.002 of each other. Fast from the start. That’s something we’ve not seen from Rossi yet this year.
After that he was metronomic, bagging five 1’35.0 laps and three 1’35.1s. By comparison, the next fastest, Marquez, managed three 1’35.0s and just the one 1’35.1.
It’s also important that Rossi is an overtaker. Cal Crutchlow often tells us that passing a Honda is difficult, thanks to the RCV213’s superior acceleration. We know this is true, but it just doesn’t stop Rossi. He has finally got the setup of the 2013 Yamaha M1 to a place where he can be ultra late on the brakes. When you think of Rossi’s career, we remember the overtakes, the races where he carves through the field.
I’ve written an earlier article about what having a fast Rossi means for MotoGP, and hot off the back of his win at Assen, Visordown is already reporting a spike in ticket sales for Silverstone. It is a subject that will be written about many times over the next few weeks, even if Rossi does not win again.
And what of Jorge Lorenzo? At the start of the weekend it was assumed he wouldn’t even race. He is a determined and focus man. He wants to defend his title. Finishing 5th, in such a competitive field, is an outstanding achievement. Not even broken bones stand in the way of Lorenzo.
Looking at his lap times it’s obvious he was starting to feel the discomfort and outright pain of his injury around lap 18 where his times nosedive.
But what of Pedrosa? The Spaniard could have – or perhaps should have – taken many more points from Lorenzo, but simply couldn’t get his tyres working. Again. His team need to find a solution if he is to keep his lead. Lorenzo isn’t particularly slow when injured, and judging by his Twitter feed he’s still training pretty hard. After Laguna Seca Lorenzo will be strong and fit enough for his injury to barely affect his riding. The German Grand Prix at Sachsenring is a track where Pedrosa has dominated for the past three seasons. It needs to be a track he dominates at again.
Dutch Grand Prix race times:
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha Factory Racing | 41’25.202 |
| 2 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 2.17 |
| 3 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 4.073 |
| 4 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | 7.832 |
| 5 | Jorge LORENZO | Yamaha Factory Racing | 15.51 |
| 6 | Stefan BRADL | LCR Honda MotoGP | 27.519 |
| 7 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | 31.598 |
| 8 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Power Electronics Aspar | 32.405 |
| 9 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 33.751 |
| 10 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 33.801 |
| 11 | Nicky HAYDEN | Ducati Team | 34.371 |
| 12 | Randy DE PUNIET | Power Electronics Aspar | 57.674 |
| 13 | Andrea IANNONE | Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | +1’01.424 |
| 14 | Michele PIRRO | Ignite Pramac Racing | +1’01.561 |
| 15 | Karel ABRAHAM | Cardion AB Motoracing | +1’04.426 |
| 16 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Came IodaRacing Project | +1’11.114 |
| 17 | Colin EDWARDS | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | +1’15.249 |
| 18 | Claudio CORTI | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | +1’24.884 |
| 19 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Paul Bird Motorsport | +1’25.854 |
| 20 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Blusens | +1’25.978 |
| 21 | Bryan STARING | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | +1’26.256 |
| 22 | Michael LAVERTY | Paul Bird Motorsport | +1’26.610 |
| 23 | Ivan SILVA | Avintia Blusens | +1’38.173 |
| Not Classified | |||
| Lukas PESEK | Came IodaRacing Project | 16 Laps | |
Motothoughts 