IANNONE THIRD AS SUZUKI SHINE AGAIN
‘We now have a better feeling with the bike’ Iannone takes first poduium with Suzuki Team face losing their concessions MotoGP’s ‘Maniac’ fights hard to bag Suzuki’s second podium in two races
O PLUS: Team-mate Rins set to signnewdeal
Andrea Iannone stunned the MotoGP world by blasting to a podium finish in Texas for the first time since he joined Suzuki two seasons ago.
The Italian was seriously fast throughout the weekend and even managed to pass Marc Marquez before eventually finishing third behind the Honda man and Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales. After his American confidencebooster, he says he’ll use the result to start building the rest of the season. “This podium is really important for me, because I worked hard last year but I still struggled a lot,” he said. “Everything seemed to be hard. But I believe in myself and in Suzuki, and we kept working at 100%. In the end, we’ve got on the podium and it’s a great result at last.
“We now have a better energy and a better feeling with the bike, and I’m confident that we can continue in this better way.” Iannone says he is finally starting to crack the secret to the riding style the GSX-RR needs. He added: “The improvement is in the whole package. I’ve spent a year trying to get used to the bike and now we’re getting a lot closer. This is the result of that.”
The success may well come at a cost for the Suzuki squad, though. Iannone’s podium and team-mate Alex Rins’ success in Argentina mean that they’re now on the verge of losing their engine development and testing concessions that were re-instated for 2018.
But Iannone says it’s a price worth paying. The Italian said: “I don’t worry too much about the rules. If that’s the price we pay for success, I hope we lose the concessions soon!”