Spaniard Marc Marquez won a record-equalling eighth straight race on Saturday at the Dutch motorcycle Grand Prix in changing weather conditions, ahead of Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso.
The runaway leader and defending champion grabbed the lead from Dovizioso with 10 laps to go, after both riders switched from wet tyres to slicks earlier in the race.
Spanish veteran Dani Pedrosa and Marquez’s team-mate, also on a Honda, was third.
His victory saw Marquez become the first rider to win eight straight premier class races from the start of the season since Italian great Giacomo Augustini in 1971.
The Spaniard, whose younger brother Alex earlier won in the Moto3 class, stretched his substantial lead in the overall standings to 200 points.
Marquez is 72 points ahead of second-placed Valentino Rossi, who rode a magnificent race from the back to eventually end in fifth place.
Rossi now shares second place in the standings with Pedrosa.
The unpredictable Dutch weather made for a thrilling race, which saw Marquez, Dovizioso and many others coming into the pitlane to switch from wet to dry tyres.
Earlier, a sudden rain squall sifted down on the track, causing riders in the Moto2 category headaches with several spectacular crashes.
In the main race, a lightning change of bikes paid off for Marquez after the track started drying out, who then went on to pass Dovizioso and staying ahead for the rest of the race.
“It was incredible — actually it’s a race that nobody won, because it was so dangerous,” Marquez said afterwards.
“It was difficult to know what the right strategy would be, but starting off with the wet tyres, later going to the slicks was the right choice,” he said.
Dovizioso agreed: “It was very difficult to know whether the track was wet or dry.”
He said the change from wet to dry tyres was “a very good strategy,” for the Ducati team even though Marquez eventually passed him.
“I tried to stay with him (Marquez) for three laps, but it wasn’t possible so, second position for us is really good,” Dovizioso said.
“In the end I had good pace,” he added.
Pedrosa, who was locked in titanic battle with pole-position starter Aleix Espargaro for third, said “it is never easy” to choose which tyres to ride on at Assen.
“Even when you change bikes, in the beginning it’s really difficult to know how fast you can then go,” he said.
Veteran rider and multiple world champion Rossi also could not make up his mind, opting to change to wet tyres at the very last moment before the race got underway. He started from the back and had to fight his way through the pack.
Earlier Saturday long-time rider Australia’s Anthony West won a well deserved victory in the Moto2 category in the dangerous conditions — his first win since 2003 when he claimed top spot at the Dutch track.
In Moto3, Marquez’ younger brother Alex took top honours in another thrilling race that saw championship leader, Australia’s Jack Miller take an early tumble.
Following the Dutch TT — run on a Saturday instead of a Sunday because of religious reasons in the strongly Protestant Netherlands — the MotoGP now moves on to the Sachsenring in Germany in two weeks.