Viñales: "It was everything or nothing”

Movistar Yamaha rider slid out of fifth in the Dutch GP – and lost the points lead

Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) went into the Motul TT Assen with a seven point lead in the Championship, but after crashing out of contention when pushing to move up from fifth, the Spaniard has been moved down to second as Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) takes over at the top.

Big Thanks to Dovi trying to avoid me. Onto the next one????✊????! @andreadovizioso

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Next is the Sachsenring – a venue where key rival Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) has won seven times in a row – and Viñales now knows he has to attack...

Maverick Viñales, DNF: “I can‘t explain what happened, because I don‘t even know why I crashed. I passed there 2000 times, but today was the day. I was pushing myself over the limit, trying to bring the Yamaha to the top and I think that if I hadn‘t crashed I could have reached the riders in front, because our pace was very fast. We need to learn that in qualifying the minimum you have to do is sixth or fifth, so I know that the mistake was made yesterday, not today. I was feeling great on the bike today. I was trying to maintain the tyres on a good level and preparing an attack on the last ten laps. I was riding in a good way and really smoothly on the entire track and I felt much stronger than the other riders, I was trying my best. This crash is something we can‘t explain, we can only learn from it, especially concerning qualifying. I knew this morning it was going to be tricky and tried my best: it was everything or nothing and finally I got nothing. We have to go for it the next couple of races and we expect something different.”