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General

Dutch TT race day

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Vinales has had enough of this - he launches it down the inside of Marquez into the Timmer chicane, and gets it stopped in time to complete the move.
The update on Nakagami after the crash was that he was taken to the medical centre for a check-up.
Vinales is launching about five or six half-hearted lunges on Marquez per lap, but he just cannot find a place on the track to get past.
Information
Current order: 1 Quartararo, 2 Marquez, 3 Vinales, 4 Dovizioso, 5 Petrucci, 6 Mir, 7 Crutchlow, 8 Morbidelli, 9 Miller, 10 Bagnaia, 11 P Espargaro, 12 Iannone, 13 Syahrin, 14 Zarco, 15 A Espargaro, 16 Oliveira, 17 Rabat, 18 Abraham.
Dovizioso is hanging in there, but is not part of the battle just yet. He's 1.2s off, seemingly waiting to pick up the pieces.
Those back straight shakes are a massive weakness for Quartararo - he's losing a lot of speed there and is having to chop Marquez quite aggressively to stay ahead.

Not to mention, he might crash with it buckling so aggressively.
Elsewhere on the track Quartararo's Yamaha looks absolutely fine - and proves as much by getting back past on the subsequent lap. This has brought Vinales right back in it.
Quartararo's bike is shaking massively on the back straight, and it allows Marquez to breeze past. Something's not entirely right with that Yamaha on the throttle.
Vinales very wide into Turn 1 as he comes up too close behind Marquez. A big setback, as it puts him over a second down on the leader.
Fifth-placed Mir has now slipped to two seconds behind Quartararo - and eventually he is overtaken by Petrucci.
Vinales is looking for a way through on Marquez on the straights, but the power isn't quite there and Marquez keeps rebuffing the attacks.
Quartararo is pacing himself out front, and this is allowing Dovizioso to edge ever closer to the tightly-knit three-bike lead group.
Just under 20 laps left to run, and already so much has happened. We're down to 17 riders, with the top seven split by 2.5s.
It was a terrifyingly fast crash between Rossi and Nakagami at the Turn 8 right-hander, although the cameras only caught the very final bit of it. Nakagami looked conscious but wasn't on his feet after the accident.
Out front, Quartararo is coming under serious pressure from Marquez, with Vinales also right on the tail of that lead battle.
Crash
And so is Nakagami! They were running very close on track, so these two incidents must be related. Nakagami looks pretty hurt.
Crash
Rossi is in the gravel!
Information
Current order: 1 Quartararo, 2 Marquez, 3 Vinales, 4 Dovizioso, 4 Mir, 6 Petrucci, 7 Morbidelli, 8 Crutchlow, 9 Miller, 10 Nakagami, 11 Rossi, 12 Zarco, 13 P Espargaro, 14 Bagnaia, 15 A Espargaro, 16 Iannone, 17 Syahrin, 18 Oliveira, 19 Rabat, 20 Abraham.
Dovizioso slipstreams past Mir to take fourth place, while Vinales runs wide to allow Marquez into second place.
Crash
He's crashed out at Turn 9 - and now Mir has run wide to drop back to fourth! Quartararo leads from VInales.
Crash
Rins is down from the lead!
Quartararo had been defending from Vinales on the previous lap, but he's now all over Mir for second - with Rins still well within reach. Vinales comes back through on Marquez.
Marquez picks off Vinales down the inside of the Timmer chicane.
Bit of a five-bike group forming with the two Suzukis, two Yamahas and Marquez. Dovizioso in sixth is struggling to keep up right now, but will probably be right back in it when the fighting begins in earnest.
It's a Suzuki 1-2 over the line as the opening lap concludes. Rossi remains down in 13th.
Quartararo finds his way past Vinales for third, Marquez tries to follow suit but can't quite get it done.
Marquez is in fifth place, followed by the fast-starting Ducatis of Petrucci and Dovizioso.
Lights green
Lights out, Alex Rins leads into Turn 1 from Mir, Vinales and Quartararo.
The warm-up lap is now underway, and some helpful fans have already dumped a bunch of yellow-smoke flares right next to the side of the track at several corners.
Information
Top riders' tyre selections: Quartararo - medium front, hard rear; Vinales - medium front, hard rear; Rins - hard front, hard rear; Marquez - medium front, soft rear.
The air temperature currently clocks in at 24 degrees Celsius, which is nowhere near as hot as it was in qualifying. This should benefit the Ducatis.
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Championship standings (top 10)
1 Marquez, 140; 2 Dovizioso, 103; 3 Rins, 101; 4 Petrucci, 98; 5 Rossi, 72; 6 Miller, 53; 7 Quartararo, 51; 8 Nakagami, 48; 9 P Espargaro, 47; 10 Crutchlow, 42.
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In Moto3 earlier today, Tony Arbolino saw off compatriot Lorenzo Dalla Porta in a final-lap scrap, becoming the first repeat race winner of the 2019 campaign.

Spaniard Augusto Fernandez was a first-time winner in Moto2, aided by a lead-battle collision between title rivals Lorenzo Baldassarri and Alex Marquez.
Autosport
In case you missed it, there will be only one factory Honda on the grid today, with Jorge Lorenzo having either sustained or exacerbated a back injury in a Friday practice crash. The three-time world champion is set to miss Sachsenring next weekend as well.

Lorenzo faces a month on the sidelines after Assen MotoGP crash

Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo faces up to a month on the sidelines following his Dutch TT practice crash, team boss Alberto Puig has confirmed

Lorenzo faces a month on the sidelines after Assen MotoGP crash
Assen delivered an all-time MotoGP classic last year, and there's hopeful anticipation that this year's event can produce a similarly frantic and memorable duel this time around.

The top four on the grid - rookie poleman Quartararo, and 2018 Dutch TT podium finishers Marquez, Rins and Vinales - are probably your favourites here, but if it's another crazy pack race, it's anyone's game.

By: Matt Beer

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