Rounding out the top five was Monter Yamaha Tech 3 racer Pol Espargaro, crossing the line ahead of LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, team-mate Bradley Smith and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, will all four riders seperated by less than four tenths of a second.
"Of course, I have to be pleased with the fifth position today, yet it was a very tough race." Pol Espargaro commented. "Unfortunately, I had a lot of difficulties with my right forearm again, which I have recently had surgery on and the last six laps were particularly tricky.
"I ran wide in the fast corners and couldn't brake, so to be honest, riding like this was anything but easy. In the last three laps, I even started to think that I wouldn‰Ûªt be able to finish the race as I was convinced I would run wide and crash somewhere. Yet, I kept fighting and held my position until the finish line, but I just tried to be as big as possible in the last lap to make the others struggle to go past me as I had nothing more to give on the brakes.
"Therefore, beside the satisfaction of the good result, there is also some frustration because in this situation it will be tricky to continue racing due to the problem itself which is also painful. However, tomorrow we will fly, as scheduled, to our first test in Japan for the 8 hour race and face this new challenge after the good result here in the Netherlands."
The Suzuki pairing of Aleix Espargaro and Maverig Vinales rouned out the top ten in 9th and 10th places respectivley.
Australia's Jack Miller was taken out in the first corner via no fault of his own when he was hit from behind by Avintia Racing's Hector Barbera.
