There were disappointments during these three days of testing in Australia and Iannone's modest thirteenth time was one of them. We did not appreciate the situation at Suzuki, where team manager Davide Brivio declared “ We asked Iannone to do more ».
How did we get here ? During the first test in Valencia, everything went normally with a good fourth time for Andrea, 0.6 behind leader Maverick Vinales. It was even better at Sepang, when the new Suzuki rider finished second at the end of the three-day test, just 0.08 behind Vinales. We couldn't have dreamed of better.
The first day at Phillip Island was just as satisfactory with Marquez's third fastest time 0.4 behind, while Alex Rins was 1.9th behind 1.1. This is the second day that a grain of sand got stuck in the cogs, with only the twelfth time for Iannone at 0.9, while Rins was ninth at XNUMX. Maybe it was just a passing incident.
But the final day proved even worse, with Andrea finishing twelfth at 0.9 while Rins was sixth at 0.5. The young rookie had gained 2.3 in three days, while Iannone's progress was little impressive: 1:29.926 on Wednesday, 1:29.947 on Thursday and finally 1:29.547. The Suzuki team was so furious that they officially published that “ Iannone was asked to do more to give important feedback to the development team ».
According to Andrea, “ We understand more and more the direction we must take for the future. I managed a very constructive long-term journey, we will be able to put together all the information collected during these three days and I must say that the result was not bad at all.
“Obviously I wasn't able to take advantage of new tires to try and put in a fast lap. I ruined the front tires that I had previously used for long-term riding, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Therefore, my position in the standings is not what I would like, but overall we did a good job.
“We work on electronics, but not only. We have a lot of areas where we can make big or small improvements and we are trying to fix everything. These tests require time and patience. It's like being a test driver more than a racing driver. It is difficult to be able to fully exploit the motorcycle's potential, but I am confident that in Qatar we will benefit from this hard work. »
