Maverick Vinales leads the way on Friday at Assen, showing all of his potential, and that of the Yamaha. He couldn't have asked for a better start to the weekend, also because the Spaniard is keen to make up for recent results.

Before talking about the weekend, Maverick spoke about the market and the likely arrival of Dani Pedrosa in Yamaha.

“Dani and I have always had a good relationship, I consider him one of the best riders in the world. If he comes to Yamaha, he would be an important asset, also an interesting one, because we'd be able to have information about our rivals! (Honda)”.

The market aside, the rider moves on to talk about his M1.

“Following, the Barcelona GP, we have focused on the details and now I feel more at ease on the M1, the bike suits my style. The sensations are positive in almost every area, the Yamaha is very agile, especially in the changes of direction. This is an important aspect that gives us confidence. It's important to be fast right from FP1, finding the right set-up. This is a level of competitiveness that we need to try and keep at all types of track."

The Spaniard is feeling confident.

“As for the track, I had good sensations, especially corner exit and braking. I got off to a good start at Barcelona too, then things started to go wrong. Here I've started out well, but I am optimistic in that Assen is one of those tracks where the Yamaha has always been fast”.

The carbon fork is one of the new elements Maverick has tested today.

“It's a shame we didn't use it earlier, as it would have solved some of the problems. I remember testing it at Brno, but the sensations were totally different there”.

His mind is already on Saturday.

“I'll sleep well tonight and then tomorrow we'll see how competitive we are, aiming for a good result. This year, I've only scored one podium so far, but I don't want to give up and I'm continuing to push”.