Last year, the Dutch TT was one of the best races in the Moto2 World Championship, and with an even tighter championship this time round, Assen looks set to deliver a cracking intermediate class race yet again.

Two weeks ago, in Barcelona, Fabio Quartararo crossed the line first to take his debut Grand Prix win, and Speed Up’s first since Sam Lowes won in Texas, 2015. It was a breakthrough for Quartararo, who has had a couple of years in the doldrums since his broken ankle at Misano in his debut GP year, 2015. The win was an important one for Speed Up, too, who had traditionally struggled in hotter conditions, but Quartararo’s imperious performance proved that those days may well be gone, which could be important for this weekend, which looks set to be uncharacteristically – for Assen – hot. Assen has been a good track for Quartararo in the past, too, taking one of his two Moto3 podiums at the Dutch track back in 2015, and he will see this weekend as an opportunity to prove that his Catalunya win was no fluke.

Whilst the Catalan GP was a dream for Quartararo, it was a nightmare for championship leader, Francesco Bagnaia. The Italian had looked strong all weekend, which made his race performance particularly confusing, as he finished eighth. The situation became more clear after the race, though, as it became obvious that Bagnaia had suffered a tyre problem – a whole chunk, at least, missing from his rear Dunlop by the end of the race. Fortunately for him, he held the championship lead coming to Assen, although his advantage is down to one point over Miguel Oliveira, and Bagnaia will be keen to extend that on Sunday.

Whilst Oliveira could not keep tabs on Quartararo to fight for the win in Montmelo, he was able to come through from seventeenth on the grid to finish what was, in the end, a comfortable second place. Oliveira is going to need to sort his qualifying out at some point, there are only so many times you can start in the middle of the pack and not get caught up in a race-ending incident. Miguel scored Mahindra’s first Moto3 pole position in Assen, back in 2014, so perhaps this is the time for the Portuguese to set his 2018 Saturdays straight. What is sure, though, is that the warmer conditions this weekend should suit well the KTM-Oliveira pairing come race day, where tyre management will be key to obtaining a good result.

Alex Marquez only managed third place at home in Barcelona. Once more, he went from race winning pace in practice to fighting hard for the last podium spot in the race, this time 3.485 seconds off the win in the end. Since then, Marquez has been testing the Kalex chassis for next year with the Triumph engine, with positive results. With so much time riding the Honda Moto2 Kalex, it is improbable that Marquez will struggle to re-adjust back to the 2018 spec machine, however it will be interesting to see if there are any issues. Assen was a circuit at which Marquez dominated, though, in 2014, taking the Moto3 win by a few seconds from Alex Rins. Perhaps this weekend can thus provide the catalyst for Marquez’ title charge.

Lorenzo Baldassarri needs to bounce back this weekend, but in a different way to his flatmate, Bagnaia. Balda struggled all weekend in Barcelona, in complete contrast to the domination he enjoyed in Jerez, the previous Spanish round. It was seventh in the end for Lorenzo in Montmelo, and the onus will be on him to return to the podium on Sunday.

The Dynavolt Intact GP team were unfortunate to miss a podium in Montmelo, with both Xavi Vierge and especially, Marcel Schrotter in the running for a top 3 finish. Vierge came almost from nowhere in the race to be challenging for the podium, whilst Schrotter had looked strong all weekend and probably would have been on the podium had he not made a mistake at turn one, costing him a lot of time and many positions. Expect the #23 and #97 to be fighting at the front again this weekend.

With so many riders having the potential, coming into this race – and to the aforementioned riders you can add Mattia Pasini, Sam Lowes and possibly Iker Lecuona – the intermediate class should produce a brilliant battle this weekend, which could have, potentially, large ramifications for the championship.

Fabio Quartararo may have stunned everyone on Saturday with his first ever Grand Prix pole position, but on Sunday afternoon he sealed the deal, taking the victory. It wasn’t a straightforward job for the Frenchman, though, as he had to recover from an average start that allowed Alex Marquez into the lead, as Fabio dropped to fifth in turn one, where the two Dynavolt IntactGP bikes came through with Pecco Bagnaia.

Whilst that was happening at the very front, Miguel Oliveira made his usual start: coming from a different continent to be in the front group. This time, the Portuguese went from seventeenth to seventh, and by the end of the first lap and a half he was fourth. After setting a series of fastest laps and picking his way through the field, he took the lead at turn ten on lap eight. Oliveira was unable to open up much of a margin, though, and when he ran wide at turn four with thirteen laps to go, Quartararo was soon underneath him.

From there, Quartararo went unchallenged, stretching away from Oliveira, making the Portuguese look almost amateur. Not only was Quartararo’s victory unexpected, it was also masterful, dominating the field to the point where the question has to be asked: why only now? Quartararo’s ability and speed has never been questioned, and after changes made to his personal management and training personnel have been clearly so successful, you have to wonder why it didn’t happen sooner. Had it been so, he would likely still be at Pons HP40 and perhaps fighting for the Moto2 World Championship; or maybe he would be in the Estrella Galicia Marc VDS team having won the Moto3 title for them in 2016. Quartararo’s story in Grand Prix racing so far has been one of ‘what if’s’, and this win only increases that – but if the double Junior World Champion can continue in this form, and take more podiums and victories with Speed Up, his real future might just start to look as promising as his hypothetical one as it did in 2015.

Oliveira may have had no answer for Quartararo on Sunday, but he still took second place and after starting seventeenth, it is probably fair to say that he should be reasonably happy with his performance. Crucially, he beat Bagnaia (by quite a bit) and cut the gap in the championship to just one point. Twelve rounds remain and we are pretty much back to square one in the intermediate class championship, and there are reasons to say that both Oliveira and Bagnaia are evenly matched as we approach the second half of the season.

Third place went to Alex Marquez. Whilst this meant he closed in, in the championship to be precisely one race win behind Bagnaia, but he will be disappointed to have missed the victory. Once more, Barcelona proved a race of unfulfilled promise for Marquez: quick in practice, nailed on for the win, only to find himself in more difficulty in the race, and dropping back in the end. Maybe a cooler Dutch climate can yield a first 2018 victory for the Spaniard.

The late-race drop off from Marquez this time brought him into the grasp of the two Dynavolt Kalex’s of Marcel Schrotter and Xavi Vierge. Schrotter realistically should have beaten Marquez to the podium, in fact you could even argue that he had the potential to challenge Oliveira for second, but a mistake in the early phases of the race when he ran wide at turn one and dropped five or so positions. His fightback was strong, though, but still he will be frustrated to have missed the podium. It was not all bad for Marcel though, as he got a motocross jersey from American motocross/supercross star Adam Cianciarulo.

Vierge went under the radar in the race to end up fifth, which was quite a good result for the Spaniard after a weekend which was not straightforward. Three seconds back of Vierge was Brad Binder, who fell away from about the midpoint of the race onwards – for whatever reason he cannot manage the race distance as well as teammate Oliveira, although he can keep the leading pace fairly often in the beginning of the race.

Seventh place went to Lorenzo Baldassarri, who lost his third place in the championship standings to Marquez after this race. It had been a difficult weekend for Balda, and he will hope for more in Assen to try and keep himself in the championship frame. Nearly three seconds back of Baldassarri was a frustrated Francesco Bagnaia. It was a tyre problem which cost the championship leader a shot at the podium and maybe even the victory; after the race he put a photo of his tyre on Instagram, and it had a huge chunk of rubber missing from it. A frustrating race for the Italian but not a threatening one in the long run, his pace is not in doubt.

The extent of Bagnaia’s struggles can be contextualised by the following: Sam Lowes had a fuel pump problem before the race began, and did not make the grid for the formation lap. This meant he had to start the race from last, rather than his qualifying position of ninth. By the end of the race, Lowes was only three seconds behind Bagnaia, and had recovered to his original qualifying position – ninth. It was a stunning race by Lowes, much of it off camera, but where he might have previously made mistakes and in the end had a poor result, he showed calmness and class in a difficult situation to make a good race. Credit has to go to his team manager, also, who was making a big effort to calm the Brit down before the race when everything looked so negative. In another team, Lowes might have crumbled. As it is, he can go to Assen in a good frame of mind.

It was Lowes’ teammate, Iker Lecuona who returned to the top ten after a few difficult races, as he finished in P10 in his home GP.

Andrea Locatelli took eleventh place, ahead of Simone Corsi. But the drama for Corsi was not in the race, rather it came after the chequered flag. Corsi was looking everywhere other than in front of him after the race had ended, and when he looked up he was too late to react to the impending situation, and he slammed into the back of Oliveira on the run into turn one. Thankfully, neither rider was hurt in the incident, but Corsi received a back of the grid penalty for Assen; an understandable decision from the stewards.

Tetsuta Nagashima finished thirteenth, ahead of Augusto Fernandez on his return to Grand Prix racing in place of Hector Barbera. The fact that Fernandez was wearing fully liveried up Stihl Pons HP40 leathers strongly suggests he will remain with us in Grands Prix for the remainder of the season, which is no more than he deserves. Remy Gardner took an impressive point on his return from two broken legs as he rounded out the top fifteen.

Edgar Pons wildcarded this weekend and finished sixteenth, better than he ever managed, pretty much, as a full-time GP rider, and ahead of Luca Marini who may have felt better physically better on the bike this weekend than in Mugello but clearly did not have the feeling with the bike as he ended the race seventeenth. Eighteenth went to Steven Odendaal on the NTS, ahead of Khairul Idham Pawi in P19 and Domi Aegerter who completed the top twenty.
Danny Kent was P21, thirty seconds down on his race winning teammate, and then came Joe Roberts, a further seven seconds back, Jules Danilo, Dimas Ekky, and Eric Granado who was the final finisher.

Stefano Manzi, Niki Tuuli and Bo Bendsneyder all got caught up in an incident at turn four on the first lap which ended their respective races. They were joined on the sidelines by Jorge Navarro, Federico Fuligni, Joan Mir, Mattia Pasini (who crashed because of a gearbox problem), Romano Fenati and Isaac Vinales.

Featured image courtesy of Markus Berger/KTM