Moto2: Another Iannone runaway at Assen

Andrea Iannone, who dominated the Italian Moto2 Grand Prix from pole, produced a mirror image performance in Saturday's Dutch TT at Assen.

After briefly losing out to Ratthapark Wilairot, Iannone swept back into the lead through the modified Ruskenhoek turn and was over one-second clear by the end of the first lap.

The Fimmco Speedup rider continued to destroy the field thereafter, holding an advantage of over six seconds by the midway point of the 24 laps - and his lead peaked at just under nine seconds.

Iannone's two victories, separated by a twelfth place at Silverstone, also mark the only time enigmatic Italian he has stood on the podium this season. He has now risen from eighth to fourth in the championship.

Title leader Toni Elias, who began the race with a 15 point advantage over Shoya Tomizawa, also got past Wilairot early in the race - but the Thai rider kept his Bimota chassis in Elias' slipstream and exchanged second place with the Gresini Moriwaki rider several more times.

The fight for second then got more interesting when Thomas Luthi, Tomizawa and Julian Simon caught the Wilairot/Elias battle with five laps to go.

Luthi, who lost out on his first Moto2 victory on the last lap at Silverstone, proved the only rider capable of attacking the two riders ahead, but Wilairot fought furiously to try and keep his first ever grand prix podium.

The last lap saw Iannone and Elias safe in first and second, while Wilairot and Luthi once again exchanged third in the opening turns. Luthi then put the hammer down and held on to his third podium of the season by just 0.083sec at the flag.

Elias also took his third podium of the season and - with Tomizawa claiming fifth - has now extended his championship lead to 24 points over the Japanese heading into his second Spanish home round of the year at Barcelona next weekend.

Alex Debon, who had qualified third, was unable to make the start after fracturing his collarbone on Friday.

Race results- Assen:

1. Iannone (Speed Up) 24 laps
2. Elias (Moriwaki) +4.492s
3. Luthi (Moriwaki) +5.390s
4. Wilairot (Bimota) +5.473s
5. Tomizawa (Suter) +7.405s
6. Simon (Suter) +7.666s
7. Cluzel (Suter) +16.023s
8. di Meglio (Suter) +16.122s
9. Abraham (FTR) +16.959s
10. Takahashi (Tech 3) +19.601s

11. Redding (Suter) +20.187s