MADRID, 27 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish rider Jorge Martín (Ducati) will try to contain the good form of the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and defend his leadership in the MotoGP category in the Grand Prix of the Netherlands, the eighth round of the Motorcycle World Championship calendar. who come in the lead in Moto2 and Moto3, also Spanish Sergio García (Kalex) and Colombian David Alonso (CFMoto), respectively.
The championship resumes action after a long break of almost a month that has served mainly to clarify the grid for next season, especially with the movement of the Spanish Marc Márquez from Gresini Racing to the official Ducati team, the most desired gap and which made Jorge Martín end up in Aprilia, from where Maverick Viñales will leave for KTM alongside the Italian Enea Bastianini, and where the Italian Marco Bezzecchi will arrive from Ducati.
With these uncertainties already resolved, ‘La Catedral’ of Assen will resume the fight for the three titles, with the ‘queen’ category at the moment in an apparent head-to-head between the current champion and the current runner-up, and with Marc Márquez trying to not give up any more of this fight before a summer break that will arrive shortly after the German Grand Prix next week.
At the moment, Jorge Martín arrives at the Dutch track with an 18-point advantage over Bagnaia, who greatly reduced him in his home Grand Prix, in Mugello, where he had a perfect weekend with victories in the Sprint and on Sunday, while Madrid driver failed in his specialty, the short race on Saturdays, where for the first time this year he did not score, and was third in the long race.
Furthermore, ‘Pecco’, who already has four victories on Sunday and who also won in Montmeló, arrives at a circuit that he is quite good at since he has won in the last two visits, to which we must add his victories in Moto2 (2018) and in Moto3 (2016). Now his goal is to win a triple, something that has not been seen in Assen for a long time since the last to do so was the Australian Mick Doohan, who had five consecutive wins between 1994 and 1998.
Martín has not been so good at this track, where last year he was fifth, his best result in MotoGP, although on Sunday he was the fastest, which still did not allow him to reach the podium weighed down by a bad qualifying ( tenth). In 2018 he has his only joy in ‘La Catedral’, the 2018 victory in Moto3.
Further away from the two favorites is Marc Márquez, whose improvement with the ‘Demosedici’ on the weekends is notable, but who has not yet been able to achieve those long-awaited victories that he needs to be able to present his firm candidacy. The one from Cervera was fourth in Mugello to drop 35 points from the lead and now he will try to wage ‘war’ on a circuit where he has the victories with Honda in 2014 and 2018.
The rest of the favorites will surely start from the rest of the Ducatis on the grid for a weekend where the weather could play a key role if it finally ends up raining, a probability that could occur on Sunday. And of the 21 podiums that have been awarded this season, 15 have been from the Italian brand, which has completely dominated the last four Grand Prix.
The Aprilias of the Spanish Maverick Viñales, the only winner not from Ducati (GP Las Américas), and Aleix Espargaró, and the KTM, especially of the young man from Murcia, Pedro Acosta, the only rider capable of reaching the podium twice without riding a Desmosedici, will try to put him the difficult things to the Borgo Panigale brand. Among them there will be neither Joan Mir nor Luca Marini, whose goal is to have the most productive weekend possible, especially the Italian who has not yet scored any points.
SERGIO GARCÍA DEFENDS LEADERSHIP IN MOTO2
As for the Moto2 and Moto3 categories, the panorama is different, with the Spanish Sergio García Dols (Kalex) defending his leadership in the intermediate and with the Colombian David Alonso (CFMoto) trying to extend his good moment to open a good gap .
The driver from Castellón only has a seven-point advantage over the American Joe Roberts (Kalex), winner in Mugello where the leader could only be fourth. At the moment, both seem the strongest and most consistent in this first section, being the only ones who have passed the 100-point barrier.
For his part, Alonso hopes that this long break does not affect him in his current great moment after chaining three consecutive victories in Le Mans, Montmeló and Mugello that have helped him surpass the Spanish Dani Holgado (KTM), who has added 12 points in the last two appointments and is already more than one race behind the Colombian (37 points), whom he cannot let escape any further.