Monster Energy factory Yamaha rider and Assen MotoGP race winner Maverick Vinales said that he is not only happy with his race win, but his whole weekend as he won his first race of 2019.

The Spaniard has had a tough start to his 2019 season, with just one podium over the opening seven races before his stunning display in the Netherlands. Vinales was visibly emotional after his win, and explain it was a huge release to secure the victory.

“I felt finally that the job has been done from Friday to Sunday, which is the most important,” said the 24-year-old.

“Most of Friday and Saturday we were doing a good job, we was preparing a good race, but we start from the back. We were getting a lot of trouble so I could never ride on my best potential.

“Somehow this weekend it was a good qualifying so I knew that if I was in the front row that I had an opportunity to win the race. I expected a little but more of a group, but somehow in the race it was only three, so I play my cards in the best way.

“I knew we had the hard tyre in the rear so my potential was the last ten laps so I push in the correct moment. The best feeling is the job is done from Friday to Sunday and that’s the most important.

“Honestly it was a tough moment, because Montmelo was the race I thought I could really fight for the victory.

“All the weekend we worked in the same way here, so I felt the bike was pretty ready to try and attack and be in the first place, fighting for the top place. Already from Friday I feel extremely good on the bike. I worked to be strong in the last laps, the last seven or eight laps which I thought was the key point for this race.

“I try my best from the first lap, I make many mistakes in the race, I lost a few seconds from the top and then tried to recover as fast I can, but in the beginning it was very difficult, I couldn’t overtake the Honda, it was so strong. But finally somehow I feel my rhythm and I understand really well my really good points so I tried to take all the profit.

“The team was working well. This is not just the rider; all the team is working really good. We want to enjoy this moment, but we need to keep working with the same mentality as after Montmelo. So we need to say congratulations to the team as they did a good job, so we’re going to try and be strong again in the Sachsenring.”

Vinales looked strong in the early stages of the race, however he appeared to be slowed down by Marc Marquez in the fourth sector. Vinales was getting extremely close to the back of Marquez’ RC213V, however he said he wasn’t attempting to use his advantage at turn twelve to overtake, instead using it to help line up into the Geert Timmer chicane.

“I was not thinking to pass, but corner twelve on all the track is my best corner during all the weekend I was pretty strong in sector four, but somehow Marc was braking really good until corner sixteen, so was very difficult to overtake him,” he said.

“It take me a lot of laps, as I showed my cards where I can overtake in the early laps, so then for me was very difficult to pass. After I pass him, I tried to push and I made a big mistake in turn one and I went off the track and then I was like ‘man, when can I overtake him again’.

“I did in corner twelve, but in a different way on the inside and that was good. I’m happy that we worked in a good way this weekend. I saw our weak and strong points and we want to work for Sachsenring.”