Marc Marquez captured his eighth consecutive win at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, Holland on Saturday.
The 21-year-old rider’s latest win in his currently perfect season increases his points lead over second place Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to 72 points. Marquez became the first rider to win the first eight premier-class races of the season since Giacomo Agostini in 1971.
Round Eight of the MotoGP World Championship was declared a wet race before the start, and most riders elected to run wet tires on the 4.542-mile TT Assen Circuit.
Marquez grabbed the early lead and swapped it with Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso a few times in Lap 1 before putting a half-second lead on Dovizioso in the next few laps.
By Lap 4, Marquez had established a five second cushion between himself and third place Aleix Espargaro. First-time polesitter Espargaro spent the duration of the day battling with Pedrosa for the third spot.
As the track began to dry, most riders came in on Lap 5 to switch to slicks. Marquez led Dovizioso out of the pits and re-entered the track in second, behind Drive M7 Aspar rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who avoided the pit delay due to starting the race on slicks.
Shortly after coming out of the pits, with the track still slightly wet, Marquez slipped in a corner and ran well off the track, and was overtaken by Dovizioso.
By Lap 7, Dovizioso and Marquez had tracked down and passed Aoyama, establishing a two-bike race. Dovizioso held a four second lead over Marquez, while behind them Pedrosa took the third spot from Espargaro.
Over the coming laps, Marquez reeled in Dovizioso, cutting the lead to three seconds by Lap 12, and down to one second by Lap 13.
Crossing the line on Lap 15, Marquez blew by Dovizioso. Espargaro and Pedrosa continued their battle for third, ten seconds off the lead.
Dovizioso temporarily regained the lead, but Marquez quickly took it back on a pass in the chicane. Marquez, who was clearly faster than Dovizioso, pulled away in the coming laps.
Once Marquez increased his gap to second, the rain clouds overhead became his only formidable adversary. His celebratory final lap was accompanied by rays of sun cutting through the clouds for the first time during the race. He won the race by 6.7 seconds.
Pedrosa won his race-long battle with Espargaro for the final podium spot. Espargaro finished fourth.
Valentino Rossi made a notable performance, steadily climbing the leaderboard up to fifth after starting the race from pit lane due to a late decision to run wet tires.
Race Results:
1. Marc Marquez
2. Andrea Dovizioso
3. Dani Pedrosa
4. Aleix Espargaro
5. Valentino Rossi
6. Andrea Iannone
7. Alvaro Bautista
8. Bradley Smith
9. Cal Crutchlow
10. Stefan Bradl
11. Broc Parkes
12. Scott Redding
13. Jorge Lorenzo
14. Karel Abraham
15. Danilo Petrucci
16. Hiroshi Aoyama
17. Nicky Hayden
18. Hector Barbera
19. Yonny Hernandez
20. Mike Di Meglio
21. Michael Laverty
22. Colin Edwards
