Strange crash cost Vinales the championship lead at Assen
Maverick Vinales has described the crash that cost him the lead of the MotoGP championship at Assen as the "strangest" of his life
The Yamaha rider qualified 11th, his worst qualifying position of the year so far, in wet conditions.
In the opening stages of the race, he surged up the order and was up to sixth place after 10 laps.
He had moved clear of Scott Redding's Pramac Ducati for fifth place when he suffered a high-side crash at the final chicane on lap 11 - marking his second non-finish of the 2017 campaign.
It meant Andrea Dovizioso, who finished fifth, took the lead in the standings by four points, with race winner Valentino Rossi moving up to third, only three behind his Yamaha team-mate.
"It was the strangest fall of my life," said Vinales.
"The bike made a strange movement that I had not experienced all weekend.
"There are days when it's time to learn, and what we have to learn today is that I cannot afford to be 11th on the grid. That forces you to treat the race like a sprint with no time to think.
"Once I was able to overtake [Andrea] Iannone and [Alvaro] Bautista, riders who braked very late, I knew I would get ahead.
"Seeing how I was on Friday, I was hoping to win. I had the pace do it."
Vinales was right ahead when Dovizioso crashed and admitted he was fortunate not to be hit by the Italian rider in the incident.
"I'm very lucky," Vinales admitted.
"I have to say thanks to Dovi because he didn't [hit] me. For sure it could've been much worse.
"I'm still four points from the championship leader, I've been like this this season but I've recovered pretty well from one race to another."
Vinales had set the pace in dry conditions on Friday, and was tipped by Honda's Marc Marquez to feature at the front despite his lowly grid slot.
Race-winner Rossi like-wise said he was "worried" his team-mate would make a quick recovery early in the race, but said it did not affect his mentality once he had been given word of Vinales' exit.
"Following the pace that Maverick had on Friday, I was worried that he [would] arrive [at the front]," said Rossi.
"At the beginning I tried to push from the first lap, but anyway, we had quite good pace in the conditions.
"So when I saw Vinales [was] out, it was important news for the rest of the race.
"But at that moment you don't have time to be happy or not happy, [you] just think to go fast as much as possible."
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