Andrea Iannone: ‘We’re not too far away, race pace was quite good’
Andrea Iannone believes he’s close to fighting at the front of WorldSBK after a promising test at Jerez.
After a strong opening day, Andrea Iannone continued his excellent form on the final day of the Jerez WorldSBK test.
Fifth fastest, Iannone was the second quickest Ducati and finished only one tenth behind Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Toprak Razgatlioglu says ‘we can fight for the podium every race’ if rear grip issues get ironed out
While day one was about working his way into the groove aboard his Panigale V4 R, day two saw the Italian set about testing his long run pace and qualifying performance.
Speaking to WorldSBK.com afterwards, Iannone said: “It wasn’t so bad. It’s our goal and focus to improve day by day. Today, we changed something on the bike, and we went a different way compared to yesterday.
“In the end, I’m quite happy. I need more kilometres, need to have more experience with the bike, the team and the tyres, but I think we finished the first test of the year in a good way.
“We’re not so far away. I think I did my best lap with the SCX tyre, so we are more or less the best rider! We struggled a little bit with the SCQ.
“I tried one Q tyre today, but we weren’t ready, the bike changed a lot, and I didn’t have experience.
“We’ll try it one more time at Portimao to change the setup a little bit and so the team understands what I want with this tyre. I used the race tyre well, but not the SCQ.”
While getting used to the SCQ tyre will take time, as it does for any rider new to the Superbike class, the long run pace was strong for Iannone.
The former MotoGP rider, who also had a crash at turn two, added: “I think my race pace was quite good. I don’t know about everybody else.
“We tried more or less a half race distance today and we, apart from the first laps, were always in the 1’39s.
“I think it’s good, but I think it’s a little bit early to understand everything and to say that we’re okay. At Turn 2, when I exited from the box and pit lane, I lost the front at 2km/h!.”
