MotoGP Le Mans: Good race for Michele Pirro, more difficult for Andrea Iannone

Michele Pirro (in the photo) and Andrea Iannone finished the French Grand Prix in eighth and eleventh position respectively. The Ducati tester who replaced the injured Ben Spies here said he was satisfied with his race, while Andrea Iannone struggled in a long and difficult race. The word is up to them.

“I'm happy with what we achieved until halfway through the race, there wasn't a big difference from the leaders but we need to understand how to improve further. With the wet track I was running well and after a few laps I was gaining quite a bit – said Michele Pirro – Ignite Pramac Racing Team – I had almost thought of passing the group in front of me, but then the track started to dry and I started to lose traction. I tried to understand if I could improve but in the end, since the gap had increased in the meantime, I just tried to manage the advantage over the rider behind me. This morning we had more difficulties while this afternoon we definitely went much better. I struggled during these few days to find the feeling with the bike, but that's normal, and I can say that it's certainly less comfortable than I'm used to. We gathered information and brought home an eighth place, I'm quite satisfied. I thank the whole team so much for the incredible work of these days, and the result achieved is obviously thanks to them.”

“This race was very difficult, I struggled a lot. I tried not to lose ground from the leaders, I started well, but then I made a few mistakes, I went wide in turn six three or four times and lost time – added Andrea Iannone – Energy TI Pramac Racing Team – I I understood that I would have risked continuing to maintain that pace and I slowed down a bit. The positive side is that my arm doesn't hurt anymore and we just have to wait to remove the stitches, then thinking that we weren't sure about racing today, all in all it didn't go too badly. In anticipation of Mugello I will have to recover some training to get in shape and have a good race. Finally, I was able to gain experience in the wet, which I hadn't had since the start of the Championship, and we collected other useful data for the future.”

Photos: Alessandro Giberti