Australian Arthur Sissis turned the tables on Italian Lorenzo Baldassarri with a fine last corner win to claim his third victory of this year’s Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup at Assen on Saturday.

Looming black clouds and a sprinkling of rain prompting a start on wet tyres although the track was only damp.

Pole man James Flitcroft shot into an early lead, but from the fourth row of the grid Sissis was up the inside and into second place at the first corner.

The rain held off and the drying track soon started to shred the tyres as Flitcroft went with Baldassarri and Sissis, pulling away from the pack.

“My heart was racing so much on the last lap,” said Sissis. “It was such a great race, I’d tried to get away but Lorenzo was always there, after about 4 laps the tyres were shredded.

“Then I couldn’t believe it when Alt passed us both and that made it more complicated. We got away from him but I knew that Lorenzo was the big problem.

“He was in front on the last lap, I’d got it wrong yesterday so I went the other side and passed him on the brakes going down to the chicane, I didn’t know if the front was going to hold up on the brakes, I think my heart stopped, I just explain the feeling going into the last corner.”

The front held up but the rear slid and that sealed the win for Sissis as Baldassarri was forced to back off fractionally as Sissis had a small slide right in front of him.

Sissis now has a five point advantage over Baldassarri with six races remaining in the season.