The start of the Motul TT Assen was a ferocious battle, a number of riders cutting each other up as their rivals tried to escape out at the front. Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) was up inside the top three straight away, giving as good as he got in the intense battle. As the race went on Lowes found himself struggling more and more, the track condition having changed ever so slightly due to overnight rain and the Brit dropped as low as sixth. His trademark determination came out and Lowes wrestled his bike up past Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Team) to move into fourth just before the race was red flagged. It wasn’t an easy battle with the Italian, Lowes having a number of massive out of the seat moments.
Yeeeeeesshhh! @SamLowes11 out of the seat, fighting in 5th #DutchGP https://t.co/LFzqvKnUzn
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) June 26, 2016
Fourth is not the result Lowes had hoped for, but 13 points are valuable for his championship challenge. He leaves round eight of the Moto2™ World Championship only five points off the lead, shared by Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) and Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40). The intermediate class is shaping up to be the best championship battle of the three classes, the closest it has been for several seasons.
Sam Lowes: “It was a difficult race today: I expected to be stronger, but actually we had some issues. I suffered a lack of grip and I was also losing the front end sometimes. Probably the track conditions have changed because of the rain that fell before the race and we were a bit unlucky, because yesterday the bike was good with this setting. However, I was able to recover well in the final stages of the race: I was able to be fast when the other riders started to drop off and I think that without the interruption for rain we could fight for the podium. We will keep working and we will come back stronger: we are just 5 points off the Championship lead, so now we look forward to Sachsenring!”