The Suzuki rider encountered some difficulties to really ride at the front today, but finally won a front row thanks to the sanction of Marc Márquez.
Andrea Iannone hasn't been completely comfortable since the start of the weekend, particularly due to the heat which complicates things on the track. Eighth in FP3 this morning, he finished tenth in the combined times of free practice and thus narrowly qualified for Q2.
He then improved his performance in FP4 where he took sixth time, and felt ready for qualifying. The rain having arrived just before the session, he was more comfortable on a wet track and was on a good flying lap to qualify on the front row when he was hampered by Marc Márquez. He found the Spaniard slowing down on his trajectory as he arrived quickly, and this caused him to lose precious tenths which excluded him from the top 3. He finally finished fourth.
However, the Race Direction considered that Márquez did not have to be there, and decided to sanction him with six places on the starting grid. Iannone therefore recovers, in a way, the first line that he should have picked up a little earlier: “Today was not easy, but it was much better than yesterday because we made a lot of progress with the machine and in terms of feeling. I end the day with a positive feeling and that's important to me. Unfortunately, I was hampered on my last fast lap at turn 9 and lost four tenths. Without this, my final time could have been even faster. It's a shame but in the end I will start from the first row, which is a good place. Tomorrow will be tough but we feel ready. »
New starting grid (following Marquez's penalty) :
1/ Zarco – Rossi – Iannone
2/ Dovizioso – Miller – Petrucci
3/ Marquez – Rins – Bautista
4/ Pedrosa – Viñales – A. Espargaró
5/Redding – Pirro – Siméon
6/ P. Espargaró – Smith – Lüthi
7/ Morbidelli – Bradl – Abraham
8/ Nakagami – Syahrin
