Little reward at Assen for Jorge Martin and Juanfran Guevara

Although today in Assen the Moto3 race had been expected to feature a large lead group, in the end the pack split from lap three onwards and seven riders fought for the win.
Although many riders had their turn in the lead, Miguel Oliveira eventually took the victory after 22 laps. Constant overtaking made it a spectacular event to open the day’s action, but only three riders could step onto the podium at the Dutch TT.

They were racewinner Oliveira, runner-up Fabio Quartararo and Danny Kent. After this race in Assen –the last to take place on a Saturday, rather than a Sunday-, the next round of the season takes place in Germany in a fortnight’s time.

The MAPFRE Team Mahindra riders did a great job of finding a good setup yesterday in qualifying, and were hoping to perform well on race day. Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia pushed from the start, whilst Juanfran Guevara lost several positions.

The trio then returned to their pace from Friday as they looked to shine in Assen, but luck was not on their side. Bagnaia was caught up in a battle between several riders, which cut him off from the lead group.

Martín ran wide after a collision from another rider on lap ten, and Guevara went down at the end of the straight when his teammate clipped him on lap twelve. Nevertheless Bagnaia gritted his teeth to cross the finish line in eleventh, whilst Martín recovered positions and ended up eighteenth.

18th Jorge Martín:
“After the race in Catalonia, we expected to finish in the top ten here. I rode well, and on the first few laps I pushed hard, but just before mid-race -when fighting for eighth- another rider clipped me and I ran off-track. It lost me a lot of time and the group escaped from me. I tried to catch them again, but it was not possible. It was a shame but we will not get discouraged; we must continue working so that things go better in Germany. The positive from the weekend is that we had a lot of pace, and I was even faster on my own than in a group.”

Juanfran Guevara (DNF):
“I started pretty badly. I think I went through the first sector in 24th place, but then I started to push and I recovered many positions. Today I felt very comfortable and had a good pace, so it’s a shame to have crashed and not been able to finish the race. I was part of a group and the end of the straight I braked hard to pass Isaac, I was left in parallel to him and my teammate accidentally clipped me from behind. Then I also made contact with Isaac and we both went down. It was a racing incident and I hope to have better luck in Germany.”

Source: Aspar Media