MotoGP: Valencia Test Day 2, Andrea Iannone “It didn't go bad, but the potential remains to be discovered”

Andrea Iannone closed the second and final day of MotoGP testing in Valencia with the ninth fastest time. Speaking at the end of the session, the Ducati rider said he was satisfied from a certain point of view, but doubtful from another. According to the Abruzzo native, the potential of the Ducati remains to be discovered, not only by the rider, but also by the men in red. The word is up to him.

“It's not bad, I'm satisfied. It's still hard, because even if we're at the beginning we always want to do well. In the end I found a good feeling and I was also able to manage the track situation well, it wasn't easy on the slicks. The team was undecided whether to let me in or not. So I'm happy, I managed to make the most of the tyres, so there's a feeling, above all it's positive not to be so far from Hayden; we are more or less at 9 tenths. From this point of view it is a good result, considering that we are a second and a half behind Pedrosa it could also be a good result, but it is not overall.

There's a lot of feeling with the front end, I have to understand the rear well, I can't take advantage of the electronics when exiting corners. That's where I lose a lot of time and in any case I can't manage the power during acceleration. I don't have power in the first part of the corner, then when I'm straightening the bike it comes, and it's the wrong moment. We should anticipate this point to make the bike more rideable. As far as the team is concerned, I am satisfied, I absolutely couldn't ask for more. What I wanted is there, even if I still have to understand a lot with electronics.

Jerez will be a very important test, all the Ducati riders will be there. Here I was able to understand where I lose and where I recover. I lose when exiting corners and recover when accelerating. Now we need to understand if it was me who was going too fast on the road or if we suffer when accelerating. I have to analyze the data with the team.

In my opinion there could be some potential, but it remains to be discovered. I don't know how much there is and in my opinion Ducati doesn't know either. From this point of view the tests will be very important. Now it doesn't seem to be going bad, for a rookie not being so far from Nicky (Hayden) who has been using the bike for a long time is not bad. However, we need to understand if there are limits immediately afterwards and if we can work well. I'm definitely not taking the bike to its limits yet. In my opinion today we didn't have much time to set up, the basic setup was that of Mugello, a very different track from this one; usually on this track a different setup is used, so seeing where we are we can think that there is a big margin; in the end, however, you only see it when you work. There is a bit of margin, but I don't know how much.”

Photos: Alex Farinelli