The three-week summer break has not dampened Pecco Bagnaia’s thirst for victory, determined to demonstrate again and again, as many times as necessary, why he is the mainstay of Ducati and the two-time reigning world champion in the premier category. With an unbeatable weekend, he commanded all the sessions at the Netherlands GP with the exception of the warm up, the Turin native once again spoke on the track everything that is reserved off it. It is the first time in his career that he dominates from start to finish, without cracks, a grand prix from Friday to Sunday, also leading all the laps in the race on both Saturday and Sunday.
His victory in Assen, the cathedral of motorcycling and one of his favorite circuits, underlines the great moment of the Italian, who achieved his second consecutive full points in the competition and cuts his disadvantage over Jorge Martín to 10 points. The Madrid native, second classified more than three seconds behind number one, was unable to replicate the finesse and precision of his great rival for the title, but he left satisfied after signing his first podium on the Dutch track and maintaining the lead in the World Championship. Enea Bastianini, fourth in the table, completed the podium after another remarkable comeback from eleventh place on the grid.
Bagnaia, who has this circuit tattooed on his right arm to commemorate his first World Cup victory in Moto3, in 2016, was simply a level above the rest. His numbers here also tell of his love for the only route that has always been present in the 75 years of history of the event: he is the first driver to have three consecutive victories here in the 21st century and his victory now makes him equal with Casey Stoner as the most successful rider on a Desmosedici with 23 wins.
“I really enjoyed this weekend, we hit the nail on the head and everything went perfect,” he said in the parc ferme. “You need to be precise, flow, be sweet, enter hard but hold the bike well because it tends to move a lot,” he explained in the previous days to reveal his unparalleled pace on a dizzying circuit, full of fast corners. Both Martín and Márquez, teammates, had the data to understand where he was superior to them, but not even with this they were able to answer him. “Pecco has been far superior to the rest, and the pace has been devastating, a second per lap faster than last year. All that remains is to congratulate him, he has been unbeatable,” acknowledged the Pramac driver.
The 93, meanwhile, frustrated and surprisingly unaggressive on Sunday, was unable to match the pace of the two Ducati leaders and ended up angry with his performance despite scraping together a fourth place that keeps him in third place in the championship. The Gresini rider let himself be overtaken when he was occupying a podium position in order to stay on the wheel and prevent his tyre pressure from dropping too much, and on two occasions he even caused a bit of a mess by braking on purpose and giving the initiative to Fabio DiGiannantonio, of VR46 Racing.
Bastianini took advantage of these breaks to emerge from the middle of the pack and climb onto the podium, in a fight for the crumbs that Bagnaia and Martín left for the rest. The Rimini native crossed the finish line almost four seconds behind his two teammates on the podium, in a race with little history in the leading positions. A couple of errors by Maverick Viñales, the only one capable of sneaking in between the Ducatis ahead of him, knocked the Aprilia rider off the podium. In less than a week, at Sachsenring, the competition will be back in Márquez’s backyard with the rider from Cervera looking to confirm his chances of taking the title this year. In Germany it remains to be seen whether Aleix Espargaró and Alex Rins can participate, who ended up bruised after two crashes suffered at Assen.
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