Moto2: Lorenzo wins again at Assen

His sixth win in nine races - all of them from pole position - increases his lead in this year's championship to 23 points over Andrea Dovizioso and Alex de Angelis, who are now tied on points after finishing today's race in fourth and second place respectively.

Lorenzo commented: "I thought it would be easier than it was, because Alex [de Angelis] has been riding so fast, faster than I had hoped.

"But we have won - the sixth victory of the season - and we have recuperated the points we lost in Donington, so we have to be happy with this result."

Lorenzo had a good getaway from pole position, but Dovizioso had an even better one from second on the grid, with the Honda rider leading the Aprilia one at the first turn.

That didn't last long, however, and mid way through the first lap the Spaniard overtook the Italian, with the two riders opening a two-second gap by lap 3 over de Angelis, Alvaro Bautista, Hector Barbera and Thomas Luthi.

But while Dovizioso started losing a bit of ground from Lorenzo, de Angelis began his chase to the leading duo by setting three fastest laps in a row.

By the eighth lap, the rider from San Marino caught the Italian and passed him for second place. De Angelis then quickly reduced the gap to about one second from Lorenzo.

While the gap remained consistent for a handful of laps, the championship-leader pressed on and by lap 20 the gap was two seconds, which almost doubled by the end of the race.

Meanwhile Dovizioso began to lose more ground from the leaders to about seven seconds by lap 16, when he was caught and passed by Bautista for third place.

The four leading riders maintained their positions to the end of the race, followed by Hiroshi Aoyama in fifth place, Marco Simoncelli in sixth, and Barbera in seventh.

With Luthi retiring from the fight for fifth place on lap 18 with mechanical problems, the top ten were rounded up by Mika Kallio, Roberto Locatelli and Yuki Takahashi.

Pos  Rider            Bike          Time   
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo    Aprilia       40:25.904
 2.  Alex de Angelis  Aprilia       + 3.857
 3.  Alvaro Bautista  Aprilia       + 8.683
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso Honda         + 17.948
 5.  Hiroshi Aoyama   KTM           + 30.800
 6.  Marco Simoncelli Gilera        + 31.135
 7.  Hector Barbera   Aprilia       + 33.323
 8.  Mika Kallio      KTM           + 40.807
 9.  R.Locatelli      Gilera        + 1:11.829
10.  Yuki Takahashi   Honda         + 1:18.958
11.  Fabrizio Lai     Aprilia       + 1:19.361
12.  Taro Sekiguchi   Aprilia       + 1:26.810
13.  Shuhei Aoyama    Honda         + 1:26.850
14.  R.Wilairot       Honda         + 1:28.717
15.  Karel Abraham    Aprilia       + 1:28.949
16.  Dirk Heidolf     Aprilia       + 1:30.407
17.  Aleix Espargaro  Aprilia       + 1:33.812
18.  Efrén Vazquez    Aprilia       + 1:37.706
19.  Alex Baldolini   Aprilia       + 1:44.925
20.  Jules Cluzel     Aprilia       + 1:47.373
21.  Eugene Laverty   Honda         + 1 Lap
22.  Imre Toth        Aprilia       + 1 Lap
23.  Ronald Beitler   Honda         + 1 Lap
24.  Randy Gevers     Aprilia       + 3 Laps

Not Classified:

     Rider              Bike      Laps
     Thomas Luthi       Aprilia    18 
     Dan Linfoot        Aprilia    11 
     Hans Smees         Aprilia    10 
     Julian Simon       Honda      8 


Fastest lap: de Angelis, 1:40.354 on lap 13