After Jonathan Rea claimed an all important pole position this morning it was Nicholas Spinelli who claimed victory in a red flagged opening race of the weekend.

On the grid before the race there was absolute chaos as the riders and engineers trying to decide who would run what tyres. With most riders going for intermediate and wet tyres there were some standouts who took the gamble and went slicks, like Britain’s Sam Lowes.

In the early stages of the race it was Nicholas Spinelli who grabbed an early lead due to starting on intermediate tyres, whereas everyone else picked slick rear tyres. After one lap the rookie took a four second lead over the rest of the field. But Sam Lowes and Michael Ruben Rinaldi dived into the pits after one lap of racing, which was ultimately the wrong decision for Lowes.

The first faller of the race was Andrea Iannone who took a tumble into turn three as he continued to try and push on a wet section of the track like it was dry.

Whilst Spinelli was 24 seconds ahead of the pack it was Axel Bassani leading the charge after him with Andrea Locatelli, Alvaro Bautista, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes chasing him down.

With the chasing pack continuing to battle behind Spinelli continued to hold a 23 second lead with only 14 laps to go. The only things that would stop the Italian from claiming his first ever Superbike win would be a mistake on his own part or the typical Assen conditions changing once again.

Nine laps to go and it was the two time World Superbike Champion, Bautista, who was chasing down Spinelli and he had closed the gap down to 8.3 seconds. Just a lap later the gap between Spinelli and now Razgatlioglu had plummeted to 3.586 seconds.

In a crazy turn of events a Red Flag was thrown an Nicholas Spinelli who was being hunted down by Razgatlioglu and Bautista the Italian took his first ever Superbike win.

Joining Spinelli on the podium was Razgatlioglu in second place and Bautista in third place. With pole sitter Rea down in sixth place.