Nine-time world champion Valentino took the Assen MotoGP win today in Holland but was pushed all the way by a resurgent Marc Marquez who took it to The Doctor and tried a pass into the last lap which saw Rossi bounce across the gravel.
Rossi had led for almost all of the race but ran across the grass with seven laps to go, giving Marquez a chance to pass into the first corner. Rossi then sat behind the Repsol Honda wunderkind to see where he was strong, putting a move on Marquez with three laps left as the Spaniard as took to the grass.
It looked like Rossi had the pace to pull away from Marquez but through Ramshoek, where The Doctor had been faster, Marquez manage to close on the Yamaha’s rear wheel and tried to outbrake Rossi into the Geert Timmer chicane.
As they got to the apex of the right, Marquez wasn’t quite far enough as Rossi took his line, the pair clashed and Rossi, who kept the throttle pinned, skipped across the gravel to take the chequered flag while Marquez had to run wide.
“I did a fantastic penultimate lap and take some advantage but Marquez was able to recover. In the last chicane I brake hard and I enter. He pushed me on the outside so I have to cut but fortunately on the gravel I keep the control,” said Rossi, speaking in parc ferme.
It is the first time since Misano 2009 that Rossi has taken a win from pole position and he said in parc ferme it was a very important win as team-mate and championship rival Jorge Lorenzo could only finish in third place from his eighth-place grid slot.
Lorenzo scythed his way through the pack to take third place by the end of lap one and looked to equal pace to both Rossi and Marquez but with 18 laps to go, his speed dropped of as the medium rear lost its adhesion and he slowly slipped backwards to finish 14.576s behind Rossi.
Andrea Iannone claimed fourth place but had a lonely ride for it after getting involved in a scrap with the Espargaro brothers early doors, he got his head down and pulled a gap which the field wasn’t able to chop back.
The fight for fifth was initially headed by the Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro but brother Pol, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, Bradley Smith and Dani Pedrosa, who crashed heavily in morning warm-up, had other ideas.
After pass after pass, it was the younger Espargaro who claimed fifth place by just a tenth from Crutchlow with Smith the same distance back again. Pedrosa ended in seventh place with Aleix Espargaro ninth and his team-mate Maverick Vinales in tenth place.
Dovizoso eventually slipped back behind the Pramac Ducati of Danilo Petrucci for 12th place, one ahead of Scott Redding who will not be pleased with his result. Eugene Laverty crashed unhurt at turn 11 with ten laps remaining.
