MotoGP, Iannone: I am finally braking like I want to

Don’t tell Iannone that his 5th place in qualifying is a surprise or you’ll risk making him angry. Andrea swears that he was always convinced of his bike’s potential and this good result came after a lot of hard work. It is no secret that the Italian had struggled yesterday on his Suzuki and even this morning he missed going straight through to Q2.

“But today we reacted well and the qualifiers were excellent - he said, satisfied - The problem is that we always arrive at the races without any points of reference and we need a bit more time, let’s say the first two sessions, to dial things in, especially in terms of the electronics.”

Is that what happened this time too?
“The guys did a really good job. Already this morning I had found the bike improved and that allowed me to push harder. Then in the afternoon, we made some more changes to the settings and that helped me to be more competitive.”

When did you realize that things were moving in the right direction?
“Yesterday afternoon. That is when we took the biggest step forward. The Suzuki engineers did a great job at home and we put something on ahead of time that had been prepared for the tests.”

What are you talking about?
“The chassis architecture. This improved my sensations and especially braking. It was what I had always been missing and what I had been looking for. Now I can brake the way I like to.”

Are you happy with your pace?
“In FP4 I tested a bike with a different setup that I did not like too much, but when I got on the other one I did well. Of course, the three Hondas have an impressive pace.”

You also used the fairing with the spoilers…
“I had also tested it in Austin, but there we were losing more top speed than we were gaining in acceleration. Here, on the other hand, it is better. It gives us a bit of a hand.”