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ASSEN, NETHERLANDS – JUNE 30: Casey Stoner of Australia and Repsol Honda Team greets the fans and celebrates the victory at the end of the MotoGP race of the MotoGp Of Holland at TT Circuit Assen on June 30, 2012 in Assen, Netherlands.
Casey Stoner took the victory in a chaotic Assen MotoGP, which many of the riders were unable to finish. While the others were struggling, Repsol Honda duo Stoner and Dani Pedrosa were leading the race and battling each other over the top podium spot. Eventually, Pedrosa had to settle for second while Andrea Dovizioso took the final podium spot.
The TT Assen Circuit was all but friendly for the riders and the problems already started at the start of the race as Alvaro Bautista crashed into Jorge Lorenzo. Both were uninjured, but forced to leave the race. As Lorenzo had a good starting position in third, he was clearly upset with the incident. His teammate Ben Spies tried to make up for his team’s loss and started his pursuit on leading pair Stoner and Pedrosa.
It did not take long before the second incident of the day occurred as Stefan Bradl crashed out of fourth. It was the first time he was unable to finish a race in his rookie season. Meanwhile, Nicky Hayden had run into the gravel. Though he was able to continue the race, he lost some places. Shortly after, Cal Crutchlow would gain up on him after passing Valentino Rossi and Hector Barbera.
While the leading pair started to open a gap to the rest, the chaos behind them continued. This time it was Yonny Hernandez who had run into the gravel and was forced to leave the race. Shortly after, Colin Edwards was forced to retire as well, with mechanical issues. Meanwhile, Dovizioso had passed Spies for third while Crutchlow was racing fifth after having left Hayden behind him. Spies and Dovizioso had swapped positions several times in their battle over third. This battle remained undecided until the very last laps as Dovizioso passed Spies on the final lap and left the Yamaha Factory racer in fourth.
The last incidents of the day occurred with only eleven laps to go when Aleix Espargaro was forced to retire and one lap later, Rossi was brought back to the pits with a chunk of his rear tire missing. He was able to continue the race, but could not make much of it anymore and finished thirteenth.
After his victory, Stoner has moved up in the standings. He has as many points as leader Lorenzo as both hold 140 points in the Championship.
View full results TT Assen 2012!
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