Maverick Viñales finished the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix sprint race in the same third position he started – once again unable to compete with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Aprilia rider finished with a comfortable margin of over two seconds ahead of Enea Bastianini (Ducati), but he was behind the rider immediately in front of him – Martín – by 1.748s. In an interview with the official broadcast, the number 12 said:
– Well, I’m not happy, because I expected to fight with them at the front. But somehow the Ducati team takes a step forward on Saturday and Sunday. I tried to follow them, but in the end my pace was a little slower, so when I saw that I had a big gap behind me, I just tried to get on the podium and not make a mistake because I was pushing to the limit.
The main race at Assen will take place this Sunday and Viñales underlined his determination to take victory: ‘It’s important to take another step forward tomorrow; I want to fight for the win. So we’ll try. We’re doing a good job, we’re putting the bike in front, so we’ll try to be there tomorrow.‘.
