The two-time world champion won the Dutch motorcycle Grand Prix, leading from start to finish at the Assen circuit.
Francesco Bagnaia won his third consecutive Dutch MotoGP race, overtaking championship leader Jorge Martin to close the gap to 10 points on his way to a third consecutive world title.
Bagnaia’s Ducati Factory team-mate Enea Bastianini completed the podium in Assen on Sunday.
Polesitor Bagnaia ran a flawless race, taking the lead from the start, and capped off a memorable weekend with victory in Saturday’s sprint race.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” said the rider from Turin after completing the riding masterclass.
“I had to push from the start and struggled a bit with the rear wheel, but I improved every lap.”
“We were very fast and accurate. I am very satisfied.” added Bagnaia, who broke the Assen track record twice over the weekend.
The weekend’s victory in Assen once again underlines Ducati’s dominance in the manufacturers’ championship standings, with the German brand claiming its fifth consecutive full podium finish.
Bagnaia’s race was never in doubt as he and Martin opened up a significant gap to the rest of the field in the opening laps of the race.
Throughout the race, Martin was five seconds behind the front runner on the 4.5 km (2.8 miles) track. He made a final push to draw Bagnaia, but was unable to get close enough to challenge and ended up finishing 3.68 seconds behind the Italian.
“When the race was over I had nothing left. I did my best to catch him,” Martin said.
The real battle was for third place, and it turned into a titanic fight between Bastianini, Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, Marc Marquez on his Gresini Ducati and Fabio Di Giannantonio on his VR46 Ducati.
After a ping-pong race, Bastianini passed Vinales with four laps remaining and took third place at the checkered flag, ahead of the Spaniard.
Riders are now preparing for the German MotoGP at Sachsenring next week.
Martin now leads the 2024 MotoGP World Championship standings with 200 points from eight of 21 rounds. Bagnaia (190 points) came in second place, followed by Marquez with 149 points.
