The kinks and speed of TT Circuit Assen brought MotoGP up to pace for the second weekend in a row and for round ten of the current campaign. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pedro Acosta and Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Maverick Viñales rushed to 4th and 5th under clear skies and in warm temperatures and watched by a 109,500 Sunday crowd, as the popular and historic venue celebrated a centennial of motorcycle racing. Jose Antonio Rueda won Moto3™ with the KTM RC4 for the sixth time from ten outings.
From Italy to the Netherlands in a week and one prestigious Grand Prix stage to another. MotoGP blasted around the flat 18 corners of the TT Circuit Assen and the only course that has been present in all-bar-one of the 76 seasons of FIM world championship racing. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull KTM Tech3 squads started the 26-lap GP from the third (Pedro Acosta in P9), fourth (Maverick Viñales in P10), sixth (Brad Binder in P16) and seventh (Enea Bastianini in P20) rows of the grid.
Acosta made the livelier getaway and was straight into podium reckoning. Pedro kept his pace until the final laps of the chase for his first trophy of 2025. The Spaniard lost the tow towards the end but was just 3.5 seconds from P3. Viñales could see Acosta ahead and was circulating in 6th. He managed to pass Franco Morbidelli but then had too much ground to make up. When optimum grip from his rear tire evaporated in the closing stages, Maverick guided the #12 machine to P5. Bastianini was encouraged by both his start and his race rhythm. The Italian pushed into the top ten and passed brandmate Binder to make sure of 9th and seven points. Brad’s effort, despite some front-end instability, was at least consistent and delivered P11.
Acosta is the highest KTM placed rider in the championship with 98 points. MotoGP will break for a week before the next double-header takes the series to Germany (Sachsenring) and then Czech Republic (Brno).
Maverick Viñales, 5th and 10th in the championship standings: “I’m quite happy. I still have a lot to learn from the bike. From lap 10 to 16-17 I had a good rhythm and could ride pretty fast and the guys in front were not getting away but then I had a massive drop on the rear and couldn’t push any more. I tried! But it was not possible. Today was one of those days where I had to accept the situation and just arrive home for the last five laps. We are positive and we know we have good potential. We just need to make life easier for ourselves and a better qualifying will help.”
Enea Bastianini, 9th and 15th in the championship standings: “One of the better results but also for my feeling on the bike. I still have the same problem: when I am following and in the slipstream I can turn the bike and make the changes of direction necessary to have the same pace as the other KTMs, but when I am alone I cannot push in the same area. It’s like the bike is much heavier and that’s a problem at a track like this one. We need to understand this better.”
Brad Binder, 11th and 13th in the championship standings: “I didn’t have much pace all weekend. I could do the same time every lap but it was too slow. I missed the speed here. It’s been tough and the only positive is that I finished both races…but that doesn’t mean much to me! We need to go home and analyze where I was losing the time. In general, it is nothing too serious we just need a bit more speed.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “We had a very positive day today here in Assen. Top five results for both Pedro and Maverick is something we have produced in other races but it was well deserved here for the work that was made. Overall, we followed our positive trend but we missed the Quali and that is so important in MotoGP now: if you are not starting on the first two rows then it’s a tough fight for podium places. Anyway, we understand what we need to improve and we’re working on it, like the turning of the bike. For this track there were some areas where we were struggling a little but we know on Sundays, with harder tires, we are closer and closer to the top. Pedro’s race was really strong and he was attacking hard from the first laps, which was the key. The podium was not far but we need to look into the tire drop. For Maverick it was a little of the opposite: the first laps were not so strong but then he was really coming up fast. We need to be happy about Enea’s top ten result and the P11 for Brad after a challenging weekend shows we are near the right direction for both.”
