Rea Reclaims the Lead
Assen continues to be golden ground for the champion but not as kind to others
Tt CirCUit assen has aLwaYs Been a favourite for Jonathan rea (kawasaki racing team worldsBk) and this time was no different because the champion blitzed to claim his fifth consecutive pole position. things were not so hot for toprak razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BriXX worldsBk) because he crashed early in the session. thankfully, he recovered and salvaged second place while scott redding (aruba.it racing – Ducati) rounded off the front row.
For race one, rea did not get the best start off the line and was passed by razgatlioglu. the lead proved short-lived, though, because an error sent the turk wide and rea was back in the lead. Michael ruben rinaldi (aruba.it racing – Ducati) showed promise of a great fight but put an end to that effort when he crashed at turn eight on the third lap. this allowed scott redding (aruba.it racing – Ducati) to re-join the race and fight for the podium. the race was red-flagged towards the end when Jonas Folger (Bonovo MgM action) suffered a massive crash. rea ran away at the front to claim his 13th victory at assen, thus becoming the first rider in wsBk history to win so many times at a single circuit. redding made quick work of razgatlioglu and finished in second place while the Yamaha rider had to settle for third.
rinaldi made the most of the start and shot into the lead but was passed by rea soon thereafter. rinaldi hung on and claimed second place while razgatlioglu took third place.
race two began with some drama. razgatlioglu took off to a good start but was taken out at the first turn by garrett gerloff (grt Yamaha worldsBk team). the american was given a ridethrough penalty but the crash ended razgatlioglu’s race. in this confusion, rea dropped down the order and andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BriXX worldsBk) found himself leading the race. By the fourth lap, rea was back in second place and, by the mid-point of the race, was even back in the lead. he maintained that until the end of the race and completed a hat-trick victory at assen. Locatelli then came under intense pressure from redding and eventually had to settle for a third-place finish for his maiden wsBk podium.
with a lacklustre performance over the weekend, the championship lead has switched hands once again. rea is back in the lead with 243 points, followed by razgatlioglu and redding with 206 and 162 points respectively.