Quartararo was so much quicker through Assen’s unique kinks on the run towards the final chicane. At said chicane, Quartararo went for a move but was wide, and Bagnaia got his GP21 stood up and blasted back past. This happened again on Lap 6, before Lap 7 saw Quartararo grabbed P1 through Turns 12 and 13. How crucial was that going to prove? Meanwhile, Nakagami was still holding Viñales at bay, with Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing), Mir and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) line astern right behind.

Two 1:32.8s saw Quartararo stretch a 1.2s lead to Bagnaia on Lap 9. On Lap 11, that gap was up to 2.5s as Bagnaia now had to focus on keeping Nakagami behind him. The Japanese rider passed the Ducati rider on Lap 11 through the rapid kinks, but Bagnaia grabbed P2 back down the front straight. Viñales, Zarco, Mir and Oliveira were all waiting in the wings. It was copy and paste of Nakagami vs Bagnaia a couple of laps later, before Bagnaia was handed a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits too many times.

On Lap 15, there was plenty of action. Bagnaia dived into the long-lap penalty loop, teammate Miller crashed unhurt at Turn 5, Nakagami was sat up by Mir at the same corner and it was now Viñales in second place, four seconds behind runaway leader Quartararo. Miller re-joined but was given the black flag and orange flag, meaning the Australian was out of the race. Mir was past Zarco at Turn 5 with eight laps to go and into third place, Oliveira was around half a second away from Zarco in fifth. The gap came down to 2.5s with two laps to go between Quartararo and Viñales, but no one had an answer to El Diablo at Assen as the Frenchman tasted Dutch delight in 2021, a fourth 25-point haul of the season to extend his Championship advantage to 34 points heading into the summer break. Viñales delivered impressive late-race pace on the front soft tyre, but it wasn’t enough to reel in Quartararo. Nevertheless, after finishing last at the Sachsenring, P2 for the Spaniard is a splendid effort as the number 12 returns to the podium for the first time since his Qatar GP win. Mir’s podium is his third of the season, yet another brilliant comeback ride from P10 on the grid.