Nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi has taken his first MotoGP win for more than a year at Assen, beating Danilo Petrucci by 0.063s on the 20th anniversary of his first ever Grand Prix win at the same circuit.
Rossi and Petrucci broke away from Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso with two laps to go and it was a straight fight for the win while team-mate Maverick Vinales had to surrender the championship lead to fifth-placed Andrea Dovizioso when he crashed out at the Geert Timmer chicane with 14 laps to go.
Rossi was first to encounter backmarkers Hector Barbera and Alex Rins, who had changed bikes after rain flags, and The Doctor dealt with them best but Petrucci said in parc ferme that no blue flags had been shown, and that might well have cost him his maiden win.
The fight for third place looked set to go between the Honda and Ducati riders but Cal Crutchlow came from nowhere, lapping 1.6s faster than the men in front having looked after his medium rear better than the two protagonists in front.
The British rider passed Dovizioso for fourth with two laps left and then went under Marquez at the chicane for third. Dovizioso was then out of it and the Honda podium battle commenced. Marquez re-took the lead at Strubben but then Crutchlow was back past but the Spaniard was having none of it and went under Crutchlow with a brave and fast move at Ramshoek to bag the final podium spot.
Today’s clash looked set to be a war of tyre compounds as poleman Johann Zarco got the holehot equipped with his favoured soft/soft Michelins all round with Marquez on mediums front and rear. Rossi was third using medium front and hard rear, while Petrucci took the same decision as Marquez.
Zarco pulled a half-second gap in the opening two laps while Scott Redding made his way through to fifth place and Vinales passed Crutchlow for ninth place. Redding set the fastest lap pf the race - a 1’34.617, on lap six as he tried to haul in the leading group while Vinales put a move on Alvaro Bautista and then Andrea Iannone for eighth.
Sam Lowes crashed out of a points scoring position with 18 to go and Jonas Folger did the same thing at Haarbocht a lap later.
Rossi started moving towards the front with 16 to go, passing Marquez at Haarbocht for second place while Vinales went under Redding for fifth place and looking like he had found a rhythm with fast lap times. Dovizioso, who started outside the top ten, also got into his stride and started to make his way forwards.
With 15 left, Rossi passed Zarco for the lead at Haarbocht and but the Frenchman tried to go back in front as The Doctor ran wide at Ossebroeken. The pair touched and Zarco came off worse, falling behind Marquez into third.
Petrucci went under the Monster Yamaha man a lap later and it looked like he had already secured a podium spot as there was a big gap back to Vinales in fifth. But the then-series leader went down, giving Dovizioso clear track and the Italian was able to lap a second faster than the men in front.
Rossi’s opened a half-second gap with 11 left to run as Petrucci went under Marquez for second at Strubben and two laps later, Rossi was more than a second ahead. However, as the crossed the line to start lap 19, the rain flags were shown.
Dovizioso’space brought him up to the rear of Zarco and he passed for fourth place, and then made short work of Marquez for third. Zarco took a risk that the rain would get heavier and pitted to change bikes but got a pitlane speeding penalty.
Barbera, Rins and Jorge Lorenzo also took the same gamble but it was the wrong call as the rain stopped and they were left with wet tyres on a dry track.
Dovizioso found a way past Petrucci for second at Haarbocht but the Octo Ducati man was back past at Mandeveen. He then started to claw in Rossi, who had backed off because of the rain spots. Petrucci went under his mate at Hoge Heide with five to run.
Marquez went back past Dovizioso at Haarbocht on the next lap but Dovizioso was having none of it, re-passing the Spaniard at De Built while Rossi re-took the lead at the Timmer chicane. Marquez and Dovizioso both then appeared to run out of grip and fell into the paws of Crutchlow.
With the podium positions sorted and Crutchlow able to beat Dovizioso, Jack Miller - who won here last year - finished in sixth after a lonely rider. Karel Abraham was seventh after his team-mate Alvaro Bautista fell.
Loris Baz, Iannone and Aleix Espargaro completed the top ten with brother Pol 11th on the KTM. Tito Rabat beat a dismal Dani Pedrosa for 13th while the riders who opted to switch to wets occupied the final placing and Lorenzo will not have been happy to have been lapped by Rossi. Bradley Smith also crashed out.
