The Suzuki rider was dominant throughout the weekend, but had to lose in the race. Despite everything, he finished on the podium and offered another excellent result to his team.
Andrea Iannone had an excellent Grand Prix in Australia and it completely made us forget his fall in Japan. First in the combined times of free practice, first in FP4 and fourth in qualifying, he was announced as the favorite for the race.
After a good start, he immediately placed himself in the leading group, and narrowly avoided being involved in the accident between Zarco and Márquez. The Frenchman's bike did not go far from the Italian! Despite a few mistakes, he maintained his position among the first, and fought well against the others. He ended up taking second place with five laps remaining.
He thus won his fourth podium of the year and at the same time offered his seventh to Suzuki: “I'm really happy, especially since we were at the front throughout the weekend, and that's very positive. We worked together to improve my feeling with the bike and it worked as I finished really close to victory.
I made a mistake in the fourth corner, went wide and lost about four or five places. I had to make an effort to come back. At that point, the tires had worked quite a bit, so I decided to stay in the group and wait, to manage my tires.
In the last four laps I still had it under my belt, but I made another mistake in turn 4, and Dovi was able to pass me. I felt capable of winning, but the battle was tough with Vale, the Ducatis, and even Marc and Zarco at the start. I was losing ground with them, and when I finally managed to overtake them and leave them behind, I realized that I wouldn't be able to catch up with Viñales. So I simply tried to defend my place while saving my tires. I pushed XNUMX% to make sure I finished second. We will see how it goes in Malaysia. »
Australian Grand Prix, Phillip Island, MotoGP J.3: Ranking.
1 25 Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 40'51.081
2 29 Andrea IANNONE Suzuki +1.543
3 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +1.832
4 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati +4.072
5 42 Alex RINS Suzuki +5.017
6 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +5.132
7 43 Jack MILLER Ducati +6.756
8 21 Franco MORBIDELLI Honda +21.805
9 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia +22.904
10 38 Bradley SMITH KTM +22.940
11 17 Karel ABRAHAM Ducati +34.386
12 9 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati +35.025
13 45 Scott REDDING Aprilia +36.348
14 30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda +36.389
15 10 Xavier SIMEON Ducati +44.214
16 12 Thomas LUTHI Honda +48.226
17 81 Jordi TORRES Ducati +1'04.965
18 7 Mike JONES Ducati +1'19.817
Not Classified
44 Pol ESPARGARO KTM 5 Laps
55 Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha 9 Laps
26 Dani PEDROSA Honda 16 Laps
93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 22 Laps
5 Johann ZARCO Yamaha 22 Laps
