Iannone: “I wanted a longer battle with Simón”

Entering the history books on Sunday as the victor of the shortest race in World Championship history Andrea Iannone was of course happy to have been declared as the winner of the rain-curtailed 125cc contest at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, though he had hoped his duel with Julián Simón would last longer.

Only four laps of the 125cc race were possible before the rain at the Losail International Circuit brought the red flags out and cut proceedings short, and with Iannone in the lead at the time he climbed onto the top step of the podium in the Arabian desert.

The 19 year-old, who rides in the new Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. structure this season, has tasted victory once before in his career (in a wet race in Shanghai last year), though on this occasion the riders were only awarded half points in the standings due to the shortness of the Qatar race, meaning Iannone went home with 12.5 points in the bag.

The shortest race ever saw Iannone get away well from third on the grid and he had the better of preseason protagonist and poleman Simón before the stewards called the riders in.

Iannone declared, “I was pleased to have won but it would have been nicer and more exciting to fight with Julián for longer. You can never take first place at a Grand Prix for granted and we look forward to racing next time out in Japan. The rain seems to bring me luck as I won last year in China when it was also wet.”