Jack Miller defies slippery conditions in Assen to claim maiden MotoGP victory

He also became the first rider to win a MotoGP race other than Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Rossi and Pedrosa, since fellow countryman Casey Stoner in 2012.

Having struggled to make any sort of pace in the wet conditions at a track that holds some haunting memories for him, Jorge Lorenzo could only manage to come home in tenth, having been running down in 19th at the time of the red flag, but he did at least make up points on Rossi who lost an additional 20 points to championship leader Marquez.

It was the first MotoGP win for an independent team since 2006. We’ll see tomorrow in the race.

“Many times this year many riders make points in the race because a faster rider crashes and this is a unusual championship, in the wet or dry, so it’s not nice but no excuses and we have to improve”, he said.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) and Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) completed the top ten in the session. “But this year it has been hard to make pre-race predictions, we don’t know how the Michelin tires will perform here”, Dovizioso said. He has won nine times in front of his Dutch fans (125cc x 1 in 1997, 250cc x 1 in 1998, and MotoGP x 7 in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015) and counts Assen as one of his favourite tracks. The question now was, did the riders, who raced quite a few laps on a drying track, still have enough rubber on their rain tires? It will be the first time we race in Assen on a Sunday and we aim to make it another memorable weekend.

He shared some thoughts on the upcoming race, “Barcelona was a great pity”. Lorenzo said, “Racing in Holland is always a kind of bittersweet feeling”.

“I already didn’t feel the noise of the others so I already had a good advantage. We’ll give it our best”. He said, “Though I was one of the last ones, and there were many crashers, I gained more confidence than I had in the first race. I look forward to racing there”. “The gravel was very close to the track and when I arrived to it I had a very high speed and I rolled through the gravel a lot”, said the Spaniard.

He shared his thoughts on the season earlier this week with the press: “Last year I fought for the title until the last race, but sometimes in the race I was faster as Lorenzo and Marquez”. Later we had to deal with Assen’s typical “surprise factor”-we all know that it can rain at any time here-although FP4 went well for me”.

“I wanted to get back to the pit as soon as possible, so honestly I would’ve taken it even if he said no!”