Motorcycling: Dovizioso puts Ducati on pole at Assen

Jack Miller of Australia won his first MotoGP race Sunday, triumphing in treacherous conditions of a restarted race in Assen after torrential rain forced the riders off the track after 14 laps.

It was a disappointing day for Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who finished the race in 10th and lost the lead in the World Championship race to fellow countryman Marc Marquez.

Britain’s Scott Redding was third on a Ducati in the 250th race of the MotoGP era.

He changed all of that in the second half of the race, following a 30-minute stoppage, becoming MotoGP’s first new victor since Marquez in 2013, and the first Australian to win a race since Casey Stoner at Phillip Island in ’10.

It was shown just as Danilo Petrucci had taken the lead from Dovizioso, with Valentino Rossi, Scott Redding, Marquez and Dani Pedrosa forming a seven-rider fight for first place. Marquez has 145 points to Lorenzo’s 121 and Rossi’s 103.

Marquez then led, with a string of other riders falling, until Miller made his move.

The 2016 Assen MotoGP will be held on a Sunday for the first time ever in its history this weekend. The reason why we crashed and the reason why too many riders crashed was the front tyre: “the front tyre didn’t work and I believe everybody used the same tyre as the first race in the second race”. He said, “Though I was one of the last ones, and there were many crashers, I gained more confidence than I had in the first race“.

Miller, who was ranked 20 in the series coming into this race, survived and actually thrived in an attrition-filled Dutch TT, which at one point was red-flagged for track flooding and delayed before a 12-lap restart.

“Today was a race to lose the points”, he said.

“I do get a little bit excited sometimes but I tried to stay as calm as possible”, said Miller. I say ‘OK, I can not follow him.’ But when I see that he crashed, I see that Miller was behind me and when he passed I say this second place today is like a victory, because it was really hard conditions. “I don’t know”, Miller said.

As the laps ticked by, Miller’s lead continued to grow – as Marquez seemed content to take second place, while Miller rode into the distance to secure his breakthrough victory. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) +1.991 3. Pol Espargaro (Spain) Yamaha 22:27.259 5.

Rain eased during qualifying, and by Q2 some riders entertained the notion of trying intermediates, with only Andrea Iannone – who will start last anyway – doing so, but circulating several seconds off the pace. Stefan Bradl (Aprilia) +23.603 9.