Eighteen corners in 4.542 km, twelve of them right-handers, and a final sequence that has decided more races than the rest of the lap put together.
Assen has held a Grand Prix every year since 1949 — the only venue on the 2026 calendar that can say so — and the modern lap still runs anticlockwise in feel even though two thirds of its corners turn right.
The record is Francesco Bagnaia’s 1:31.866 from 2024. The longest straight is only 487 m, the shortest on the calendar, which is why Assen lap times are made in the corners and lost in the last two of them.
The chicane before the flag is the reason. It is slow enough to be a genuine overtaking place and fast enough that a rider who defends into it usually gives the position back on the exit.
