Spies claims maiden win in Assen

Ben Spies romped to his maiden MotoGP victory after Marco Simoncelli and Jorge Lorenzo clashed on the opening lap of the Dutch TT at Assen.

Gresini Honda rider Simoncelli has come in for criticism from his fellow professionals at recent races, with Lorenzo being particularly vociferous, and it was the defending world champion who was the innocent victim when he got caught up in the polesitter's fall at the turn four hairpin.
That left Yamaha rider Spies in total control as the rest of the field were delayed in the aftermath of the chaos in front of them, the American had a lead of over three seconds by the time the field completed the opening lap.
From there he was rarely troubled and was left with the simple task of ticking off the laps to claim a first top-class success at the 28th attempt, the win also makes Spies the first former Superbike world champion to win a MotoGP race since Troy Bayliss' win at Valencia in 2006.
Behind Spies, championship leader Casey Stoner further extended his points lead as he took a steady second place.
The 2007 champion enjoyed a brief battle with Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso but eventually pulled away from the Italian, although he never looked likely to get close enough to trouble Spies, to open up a 28-point advantage over Lorenzo.
Dovizioso ultimately secured a comfortable third while Valentino Rossi, riding the 2012 Ducati chassis, was fourth ahead of team-mate Nicky Hayden.
Lorenzo launched an excellent recovery ride following his early fall, fighting his way back through the field in impressive fashion to finish sixth ahead of Colin Edwards, Repsol Honda stand-in Hiroshi Aoyama and Simoncelli.
Toni Elias rounded out the top 10 on his customer Honda.
Spies was understandably delighted at picking up a 25-point haul, particularly given the legendary status that Assen enjoys among fans of motorcycle racing.
The win also helped Yamaha mark the 50th anniversary of their entry in grand prix racing and Spies said: "It's special. This track is a track I grew up watching all my heroes race on.
"With this weekend being the 50th anniversary for Yamaha, I don't know how it all came together - I had a friend over from America, we had the special colours for Assen, and the way the weather was, maybe it all happened for a reason and we were able to do it today.
"The race was tough in some ways and easy in some ways.
"It was great to have a good rhythm and be by myself, where I could set the pace. That made it difficult for the last five laps, but it was fun."
Stoner, meanwhile, was just pleased to have accumulated another solid haul of points, even though his winning run of three races came to an end.
"I was trying to get through as quickly as I could, and as I went into the first left-hander I saw Jorge and Marco go down, and knew that from that minute on, I had to finish the race, no matter what," he said.
"We weren't going to go through the effort of the last three weekends just to lose it again today."