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