Elsewhere, Aussie young gun Senna Agius was left frustrated after coming within three-tenths of a second from a third Moto2 win of the season after a last-lap classic at Assen, while injured Ducati rider Alex Marquez admitted he was prepared to pull out of Sunday\u2019s 26-lap premier-class Grand Prix before soldiering on for a remarkable fifth-place result. <\/p>\n
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There\u2019s that and more in MotoGP Pit Talk, your news wrap of the stories behind the headlines after the Dutch GP and ahead of the mid-point of the season with the German Grand Prix, set for the Sachsenring from July 10-12.<\/p>\n
Marquez reigns after Bezzecchi drama | 17:52<\/p>\n
\u2018WASN\u2019T A RACING MOVE\u2019: RIVAL SLAMS MILLER AFTER ASSEN INCIDENTS<\/p>\n
Ducati\u2019s Franco Morbidelli was furious with Jack Miller after Sunday\u2019s race in the Netherlands, describing multiple battles with the Yamaha rider as \u201cnot racing anymore\u201d after he crashed out of the race on lap 10.<\/p>\n
MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n
TALKING POINTS<\/a> \u2018Crazy\u2019 new title reality, stunning rise rivals struggle to comprehend<\/p>\n RACE REPORT <\/a> Ogura takes Japan\u2019s first win in 22 years as championship leader shunts<\/p>\n Morbidelli, 31, crashed out of 16th place in the 26-lap race, continuing a wretched season where he has scored just 43 points to sit 16th in the championship standings, 33 points and six places behind the next-worst of the six Ducatis on the grid in Fermin Aldeguer, who has missed two rounds with injury. <\/p>\n Morbidelli, who is likely to be shuffled off the grid next year as Valentino Rossi\u2019s VR46 Ducati outfit looks set to sign runaway World Superbikes leader Nicolo Bulega<\/a> to its second seat alongside new recruit Aldeguer, said the problems with Miller started at the first corner of the race in an incident not captured by the TV coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cI got bumped out in turn one, I was very lucky to stay on the bike,\u201d Morbidelli said in his English-language debrief after the race, where he started from 16th place after a three-place grid penalty for impeding KTM\u2019s Enea Bastianini in practice that led the Italian rider to call his compatriot \u201cdangerous\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cI got bumped out by [Jack] Miller in turn one, and ended out [of the track] \u2013 me, [Honda\u2019s] Diogo [Moreira] and [KTM\u2019s] Maverick [Vinales]. I lost a lot of ground, and when I was recovering I got to Jack again, and we had another couple of episodes and I lost a lot of time again. <\/p>\n \u201cThen I was trying to pick up again and recover, and when I arrived at Diogo [on lap 10] I overtook him and then crashed, because I was pushing too much and made a mistake.\u201d <\/p>\n Speaking to Italian media and as reported by GPone.com, Morbidelli continued. <\/p>\n \u201cMiller pushed me off at the first turn \u2026 when I caught up to Jack again, I lost more time because he made another truly crazy move at turn five,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI saw the footage in Race Direction \u2026 I don\u2019t know exactly what it was, but it wasn\u2019t racing anymore, it wasn\u2019t a racing move. I like to race, I\u2019m a fighter, but I\u2019m not here to hurt anyone. What happened at turn five was something else entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n Morbidelli is the only Ducati rider to sit outside the top 10 in the standings after 10 rounds this season. (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n Miller, who soldiered on to finish 12th in a race where three riders \u2013 Morbidelli, erstwhile championship leader Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> (Aprilia) and Honda\u2019s Joan Mir \u2013 crashed out while three others (Ducati\u2019s Francesco Bagnaia, KTM\u2019s Pedro Acosta and Miller\u2019s Yamaha teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu) all retired with technical issues, wasn\u2019t asked specifically about Morbidelli\u2019s claims after the race, but did point to a frantic opening lap at Assen. <\/p>\n \u201cThe first lap is always chaotic \u2026 Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and I had a side-by-side going into turn six and I got out of it, I said \u2018this is not going to end pretty\u2019,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always a bit hectic around here on the first lap with these fast and flowing corners, you don\u2019t know what the group is going to do in front of you. But we got out of it unscathed.\u201d <\/p>\n Miller\u2019s fifth points finish in 10 Grands Prix leaves the Australian in 20th place in the standings with 15 points, as Yamaha continues to struggle to keep up in the first year of its brand-new V4 engine project before next year\u2019s change for the category to 850cc engines. <\/p>\n Fabio Quartararo \u2013 the 2021 world champion who had his third top-10 result of the season at Assen with eighth \u2013 remains Yamaha\u2019s best-placed rider in the standings in 14th place with 45 points, while Quartararo\u2019s teammate Alex Rins, who is likely to join Miller on the MotoGP outer next year, has 19 points to sit 19th overall after finishing a season-best ninth at Assen. <\/p>\n Miller\u2019s teammate Razgatlioglu is 21st (11 points) as Yamaha has just 59 points to sit last in the constructors\u2019 championship, 42 points behind Honda. Yamaha\u2019s two teams sit 10th and 11th in the 11-strong teams championship.<\/p>\n AGIUS \u2018USED ALL MY MATCHES\u2019 BEFORE FAILED LATE-RACE BID<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s Senna Agius has lamented a mid-race blip that he felt cost him a better chance at a third Moto2 victory of the season at Assen, the Sydney 21-year-old finishing in third place in a three-way last-lap thriller on Sunday. <\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n EXPLAINER <\/a>The next rider market dominoes to fall after MotoGP\u2019s kingpin commits<\/p>\n SPRINT REPORT<\/a> Spaniard converts on Aprilia dominance in Assen as Aussie out early<\/p>\n Agius finished just 0.234 seconds from victory behind Colombian David Alonso and Spanish teammate Manuel Gonzalez, the trio spectacularly battling through Assen\u2019s signature final chicane on the final lap before Alonso \u2013 set to graduate to MotoGP next season with Honda \u2013 prevailed over Gonzalez by 0.024 seconds. <\/p>\n A third podium of the year for Agius, who has finished fourth or better for the past four rounds, saw him jump to third place in the championship behind Gonzalez and Spaniard Izan Guevara, who is set to join Yamaha in MotoGP as Jack Miller\u2019s replacement next year. <\/p>\n After the race, Agius \u2013 who started from sixth on the grid \u2013 felt he\u2019d fallen too far back from Alonso and Gonzalez midway through the 22-lap race, dropping 2.383secs behind race-leader Alonso after lap 13 before his frantic late charge just fell short. <\/p>\n \u201cI was really keeping my powder dry at the beginning because I knew the rear tyre was going to be a problem at the end, and then for some reason when Manu [Gonzalez] closed to gap to David [Alonso], I couldn\u2019t quite catch on and that kind of cost me the race,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI was calm and I could see my sectors at the first part of the lap keeping really stable, but the last couple [of sectors] I was starting to lose time. With about five [laps] to go I cleaned it up and caught them, but I\u2019d used all my matches to get there. Once I got there, I had no edge grip, especially on the front tyre.\u201d<\/p>\n Agius (81), Alonso (80) and Gonzalez (18) went all-in for victory at Assen\u2019s signature final chicane. (Photo by Vincent Jannink \/ ANP \/ AFP) \/ NetherlandsSource: AFP<\/p>\n Agius said he was recalling last year\u2019s dramatic Moto2 win at the British Grand Prix, where he was third coming into the penultimate corner before taking his maiden intermediate-class win in dramatic fashion<\/a>, as the laps ticked down on Sunday. <\/p>\n \u201cI tried looking for overtakes everywhere, and I really thought I was going to do something similar to Silverstone in the final chicane, but I couldn\u2019t go in with them that tight,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately I hit Manu [Gonzalez] on the change of direction and didn\u2019t really benefit from it. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great race, but we need to learn a lot because we can\u2019t really suffer in the middle of the race like that to have that much work to do at the end. But I\u2019m proud that I could catch up, and it was a good race for the confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing back on the podium is super important for the championship, and our points-scoring situation at the moment, we need to keep being consistent like we are.\u201d<\/p>\n MARQUEZ THOUGHT ABOUT QUITTING BEFORE BRAVE FINISH<\/p>\n Spaniard Alex Marquez admitted he\u2019d thought about parking his Ducati towards the end of Sunday\u2019s MotoGP race at Assen before digging in to finish fifth, a remarkable result for the 2025 premier-class championship runner-up as he continues to battle multiple injuries. <\/p>\n