2016 Assen Moto3 Race Result: Photofinish for Italian Wild Ride

It was a fantastic day at the office for Valentino Rossi’s cadets, ending in an incredibly close finish, Pecco Bagnaia winning his first race despite not leading into the final corner. The exciting run to the line saw him overtaking fellow Italian Andrea Migno, who made the most of his excellent qualifying position. He was later relegated to third due to an illegal manoeuvre, with Fabio di Giannantonio going into second place, following an impressive performance. The former Red Bull rookie put on a show, scrapping paint with teammate Enea Bastianini early in the race and leading briefly with nine laps to go.

The start saw Migno take the lead, joined by teammate Fenati soon after, with a resurgent Pecco Bagnaia following them as front row starter Nicolo Bulega lost ground early in the race. He still remained in the front group, where fourteen riders had hopes for a podium position, half of which were Italian riders.

The nation had even more to cheer about, as the lead was disputed over most of the race by Bagnaia, Romano Fenati, Andrea Migno, Nicolo Bulega and Niccolò Antonelli, the three VR46 Sky Italia riders briefly occupying all podium spots halfway through the race. Fenati only just missed out on a podium in fourth, with Antonelli in fifth, the top five riders finishing within a tenth of a second. . Jules Danilo confirmed his great pace in warm up, taking sixth position.

Brad Binder was also involved in the podium battle for most of the race, but he lost control of his bike with six laps to go after getting on the gas early and losing traction, the off track excursion through the wet grass seeing him drop to thirteenth, five seconds off the leader and breaking his perfect podium record.

Amongst the other victims of this fierce fight were Gabriel Rodrigo and Fabio Quartararo, who were on a charge to recover places into the lead group, when the first tangled lightly with Bastianini and picked up an unlucky Quartararo with 21 laps to go.

Aron Canet was another faller with 15 laps to go, taking the other RBA bike of Juanfran Guevara out and making Bastinaini lose some places. The pole man had climbed up to 5^th with 7 laps to go, but crashed 3 laps later, while trying an optimistic overtake on Bulega into turn 10.

With Jorge Navarro not taking part in the proceedings, Binder not only keeps his championship lead but actually extends it by four points, with Romano Fenati getting closer to the Spaniard, only 10 points behind.

Results: