Departing Iannone tops field

– Italy’s Andrea Iannone, who confirmed this week he will leave Suzuki at the end of the season, set the pace in yesterday’s opening practice session for the Italian MotoGP in Tuscany.

Iannone, 28, confirmed on Thursday he will leave the Japanese manufacturer after an unsuccessful spell since joining in 2017. But the Italian showed few signs of the turmoil he said he was going through as he shot to the top of the leaderboard on his final lap on the Mugello circuit.

Mugello

Italians clocked the fastest three times with Iannone achieving 1 min 47.253 sec followed Ducati pair Michele Pirro and Andrea Dovizioso at 0.550 sec and 0.708 sec respectively.

“I won’t remain at Suzuki,” Iannone told Autosport.com. “I switch to another bike, another manufacturer, but at the moment I won’t talk about my future because it’s a little bit (like) hell.”

Iannone joined Suzuki after losing his Ducati seat to Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo.

He failed to achieve a podium last year, finishing 13th in the championship. But at the start of 2018 he achieved back-to-back third places in Austin and Jerez.

Suzuki has already signed team-mate Alex Rins for a further two seasons and are close to securing Moto2 star Joan Mir for its second bike in 2019.

In Friday’s first practice, Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales’ session got off to a bad start after an early crash on the first bend but the Spaniard was able to get back out and record the fourth-fastest time of the session. –