MotoGP, Iannone: "The Suzuki is fast and consistent now"

Andrea Iannone can finally breathe a sigh of relief. His second place time today allays most of the doubts that came up yesterday. The expression on the Italian rider’s face is therefore calm and relaxed, but in his mind he is fully aware that there is still much work to do.

“Obviously I am satisfied, because we are working well. After the last test I was more worried because of the problems with the front end. It was a rather big obstacle. Until today we had only changed one component, so we decided to take a step back to the previous solution and that was enough for me to find my confidence again.

You took a substantial step forward.

“From FP2 to FP3 I had a different bike in terms of setup, finding important improvements. The bike is faster and consistent, but obviously there is still a lot of work to do.”

Did you say that you are faster because of balance or better power output?

“I feel like I’m slow (he jokes) since I am coming from a fast bike like the Ducati. With the Suzuki we still have a problem, which is that we are unable to take full advantage of the horsepower we have.”

What about the tyres?

“We’ll see about them before the race.”

Does the worst seem to be behind you?

“We struggled a lot with the front. Unfortunately, the work we did after Malaysia took us in the wrong direction. Consequently, we struggled to do good times, but now I am satisfied because with patience and dedication we are in the positions where we want to be. However, we need to improve race pace and that is the priority.”

You are very competitive on the flying lap.

“Today did not go badly, but yesterday did with the new tyre. It is all a question of confidence, because when you have none, you don’t push as you should. In the afternoon, on the other hand, the bike gave me confidence.”

Does it surprise you that Lorenzo is out of Q2?

“It surprises everyone, but it is also true that he has changed bikes.”