All talks ahead of the Dutch TT revolved around Vinales, who is sensationally considering leaving Yamaha to take a seat at Aprilia at the end of 2021, as the relationship between the Spaniard and his team has deteriorated this season.
Poleman Vinales had a good start off the line but was hacked in the nose by teammate Quartararo, who snapped the holeshot at Turn 1 as Vinales fell behind Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Honda and Suzuki’s Alex Rins.
Bagnaia nudged Quartararo as he tried to climb up Turn 8 on the Stekkenwal right-hander, but the Yamaha rider held out as both he and Bagnaia and Nakagami battled for the lead.
Quartararo made a mistake in the next corner and let Bagnaia through, while Vinales came fourth on Rins.
Rins’ hopes for a podium were dashed on lap two on the Mandeven right-hand turn at Turn 10 when an aggressive move from Johann Zarco sent the Suzuki driver into the gravel – an incident that has been investigated but gone with impunity.
Quartararo tried to regain the lead from Bagnaia into the Geert-Timmer chicane at the end of the third lap, but was immediately canceled by the speed of the Ducati in Turn 1.
This happened again two tours later, with Quartararo not being able to use the cornering speed of his Yamaha in the last two sectors to set the Ducati down in the early stages.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Quartararo finally managed a move stick through the Meeuwenmeer bend in turn 11 and immediately built a lead of six tenths on the Ducati on lap six.
Quartararo was now able to ride his own rhythm and was able to quickly widen this gap to over a second with a series of scorching laps, with the Yamaha rider three seconds ahead at the start of lap 12.
Quartararo extended his lead when he lost the battle for victory, while Bagnaia showed a resilient second place defense against Nakagami and Vinales.
Nakagami’s attempts to finish second on laps 11 and 13 were immediately thwarted by Bagnaia, who simply overtook the LCR driver in turn 1 in both cases.
But Bagnaia had exceeded the track limit too often in his attempts to keep second place and was given a long lap penalty, which he served on lap 15.
This left him in eighth place, while Vinales had replaced third place from Nakagami on lap 14 in the Ramshoek section. Bagnaia’s punishment put him in second place.
Zarco followed Vinales on Nakagami at the end of the same tour, with the Yamaha rider beginning to slack off and take some time from his teammate’s lead.
Though the gap would drop to 2.4s on the final lap, Quartararo simply managed his lead and wasn’t really threatened until the checkered flag to secure his fourth win of the 2021 season.
Vinales was 3.003 seconds between him and Joan Mir’s Suzuki, who was able to work his way up from tenth on the grid to beat Zarco late and secure his third podium of the year.
Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing, Moto2
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
KTM’s Miguel Oliveira completed the top 5 ahead of Bagnaia, who prevailed in a close battle against Marc Marquez – who finished 20th on his factory Honda – and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Nakagami disappeared dramatically from the podium when he was overtaken by Vinales and Zarco and finished ninth ahead of Pol Espargaro’s second factory team Honda.
Rins moved from last to 11th after his previous collision with Zarco, while Brad Binder returned to 12th on the KTM after starting 21st.
Danilo Petrucci was the only Tech3-KTM in 13th place after his teammate Iker Lecuona fell late while Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) and Avintia’s Enea Bastianini occupied the last points-paying positions in 14th and 15th.
Garrett Gerloff defeated Luca Marini (Avintia) on his MotoGP racing debut as Franco Morbidelli’s injury replacement at Petronas SRT on the 17th from the 12th to the 21st.
Pramacs Jorge Martin was eliminated from the race, while Ducati colleague Jack Miller’s championship hopes were shaken with a late fall.
Quartararo’s standings are now 34 points ahead of Zarco, while Bagnaia 47 ahead of Mir, eight points behind.
MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix Results – 26 laps