Yamaha’s Ben Spies took his maiden MotoGP race victory today at a cold, but dry Assen.
The Texas Terror taking off from the second spot on the grid got away and at the end of the first lap was already 2.
589s adrift from the rest of the field and never relinquishing his lead, comfortably taking his first win and helping Yamaha celebrate its 50th anniversary in GP racing.
While Yamaha could celebrate with Spies, team mate Jorge Lorenzo got caught up in a first lap accident with Marco Simoncelli.
The Gresini rider suffered the ‘cold tire and we have to win on the first lap’ syndrome; coming up in the inside of Lorenzo and at first left hander (and his team didn’t want Bridgestone to bring in the new softer tires from Germany) of De Strubben and crashed taking Lorenzo with him.
Both riders were able to re-mount, and Simoncelli had to bump start his Honda all by himself, both started cutting a super fast swathe through the back of the field and gobbling up slower riders with ease.
Lorenzo would finish sixth and Simoncelli in 9th, while Karel Abraham and Randy de Puniet weren’t as lucky, both riders crashed in the opening lap and unable to return to track.
The second and third spots of the podium went to Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso.
The Repsol Honda riders tried to catch Spies with a series of fast laps, but the American already had a big lead, so Stoner settled in for second and 20 points after Dovizioso started to fade in the second half of the race, but the Italian’s third place was never in jeopardy.
Valentino Rossi took fourth place in first race on the Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 after yesterday’s disastrous qualifying.
The Italian was eleventh on the grid and fifth at the end of lap one and then battled with Cal Crutchlow for the position which he took on lap four, but the Ducati rider finished a massive 30 seconds from Spies.
The Yamaha Tech3 rider had to pit when his was fifth with a destroyed soft front tire, but returned to finish 14th.
Nicky Hayden finished behind his team-mate in fifth, and Colin Edwards took seventh.
Hiroshi Aoyama took eighth, replacing injured Dani Pedrosa in Repsol Honda and Toni Elias closed out the top ten.
MotoGP Assen race results:01- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – 26 laps in 41’44.
65902- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 7.
69703- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 27.
50604- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 30.
68405- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 43.
17206- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 44.
53607- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1’08.
11208- Hiroshi Aoyama – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 1’10.
75309- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1’24.
92510- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 1’26.
21611- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1’38.
46612- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – 1 lap13- Kousuke Akiyoshi – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – 1 lap14- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1 lap