Viñales takes victory in shortened race as Gadea joins him on the podium
Maverick Viñales won his second victory this year and his second triumph only seven races into his debut season at the MotoGP world championship -an outstanding achievement so far. For his part Sergio Gadea reached the podium for the second time this season as he finished third at Assen where a constant drizzle from the very beginning of the race made a few riders believe the race could have been cancelled anytime. After a first few frantic and thrilling laps during which many riders battled to end up in the lead pack with many passes and trading places Maverick and Sergio managed to leave their rivals behind and end up on the podium to achieve Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing team’s first double ever. Seven laps to go the rain produced the red flag and called the race as Mack pulled a two and a half second gap over the second. The final result was that of the previous lap so Mack finished first and his team-mate third -undoubtedly an astonishing result for the team and yet another early record for Maverick who has become since yesterday the youngest rider to get himself two pole positions in a row and the youngest rider with two wins so early in his debut season at the MotoGP world championship.
25 MAVERICK VIÑALES (Victory. 25’04.147): “I think we rode the smart way today and our management was very good as well as we have been improving. It was a little crazy at the beginning with so many riding aggressively and as things were hotting up I decided to remain careful and stay a bit behind so I dropped down to the eighth position because I was thinking the race could have been stopped. Then I noticed it would not be the case and as the bike started to catch the right pace I rode as fast as I could and try to catch up with the leading pack. It wasn’t difficult and as I got myself the lead I knew for a fact I had to pull a gap between me and my rivals as I was coming very hard and fast from behind and I think the others were a bit more careful. When I saw I was by myself I remained calm and focused on the track to avoid to slip and I think I was doing great until seven laps to go the red flag was produced and I got myself a win I’d like to dedicate once again to the team for their amazing job. There’s nothing like the very first win but it’s really great to win at the Assen cathedral and I am so happy. My objective remains the same, to be the rookie of the year till the end of the season and when I get there we’ll see where we are at.”
33 SERGIO GADEA (3rd. 25’06.802, +2.655): “I am very happy because we have proved we could ride very fast and be really competitive and also because this podium is very important for me and the team after so many GPs with issues and disappointing results. I made a very aggressive start and passed many rivals in the first bends and I even crossed the finish first on the first two laps. Then I noticed the bike was going all right and I decided to take it a bit easier because it was drizzling and I thought perhaps they could call the race but when I saw it wouldn’t be the case I decided to go as fast as I could to remain in touch with the leading pack. I rode a few fast laps and I remained competitive when all of a sudden Salom came along very fast but I wasn’t game because I thought I could crash. Ruining all the efforts I had made so far and missing the podium was out of the question. At this point it started to rain a bit more and I knew that after two thirds of the race it could have been stopped anytime so I decided to be conservative. I’d like to thank the team because they did an amazing job as the bike was at more than 100% today. I’d like to congratulate Maverick for his win and because he is a true champion, he goes really fast.”
Source: Team BQR