Ben Spies pulled a perfectly measured performance out the bag to take his first MotoGP victory in Assen, and despite being a bit of a ‘procession’ the race was not without incident.

After only a few corners into the first lap Marco Simoncelli suffered from a cold tyre that flicked off his bike on a left turn and into Jorge Lorenzo, who was running alongside him. Both riders hit the floor and ended up in the gravel.

Spies was able to use the incident to gap the rest of the pack and pulled out a 3.5 second lead over Casey Stoner.

As the race progessed and Stoner managed to get more heat into his tyres, he began to slowly reel in Ben Spies by a few thousands of a second on each lap. Spies saw his lead reducing on his pit-board and he responded by pulling out a series of fast laps to secure victory by a comfortable margin.

Despite his early crash with Simoncelli, Jorge Lorenzo managed to finish in 6th place by putting in a determined and smooth performance that saw him cut through the field and finish ahead of riders like Barbera, Elias, Edwards, and Bautista.

Cal Crutchlow was enjoying another strong performance and was looking to be heading for a top 5 finish, when he was forced to pull into the pits with a shredded front tyre. He was eventually able to rejoin the race.

Karel Abraham also had some bad luck at Assen, and has been diagnosed with a broken little finger after crashing out early on in the race. Randy De Puniet also crashed out, adding more misery for the Pramac Ducati team, who had already lost Loris Capirossi from a dislocated shoulder after a crash on Friday.

MotoGP Race Results from Assen:

1. Ben Spies (11) – Yamaha Factory Racing – 41.44.659
2. Casey Stoner (27) – Repsol Honda Team +7.697
3. Andrea Dovizioso (4) – Repsol Honda Team +27.506
4. Valentino Rossi (46) – Ducati Team +30.684
5. Nicky Hayden (69) – Ducati Team +43.172
6. Jorge Lorenzo (1) – Yamaha Factory Racing +44.536
7. Colin Edwards (5) – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +1.08.112
8. Hiroshi Aoyama (7) – Repsol Honda Team +1.10.753
9. Marco Simoncelli (58) – San Carlo Honda Gresini +1.24.925
10. Toni Elias (24) – LCR Honda MotoGP +1.26.216
11. Alvaro Bautista (19) – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +1.38.446
12. Hector Barbera (8) – Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP +1 lap
13. Kousuke Akiyoshi (64) – San Carlo Honda Gresini +1 lap
14. Cal Crutchlow (35) – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +2 laps

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