Maverick Vinales admitted he needed to use all of his tactical nous to claim victory in a frantic Dutch TT at Assen. The Avintia Blusens rider traded the lead on numerous occasions in the closing laps with the Red Bull KTMs of Sandro Cortese and Danny Kent and with a corner to go, trailed Luis Salom on the KTM-powered Kalex machine.
Vinales has voiced his concern at how his FTR-Honda was outdragged in a straight line and is keen to see an improvement in that area. But after using his cornering speed to claim maximum points, the Spaniard is delighted with his championship position ahead of the second of three back-to-back races.
“That was a very tough race because with the long straight the riders behind were able to make use of the slipstream and pass me so I had to keep making up positions in the corners all through the race. On the last lap I gave it everything I had and managed to make a gap. We have some work to do on the engine to give us more power down the straights but other than that the bike has worked really well here, I love this track and now we are leading the championship so it has been a good weekend.”
