The Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix was a tale of two halves for the Ducati Team in terms of classification, but returning Andrea Iannone, although failing to see the flag, was satisfied at having pushed 100% on his return to the MotoGP™ paddock. The Austrian GP winner, who has been out of action since a crash at Misano in September, got straight through to Q2 and was a key protagonist of the Malaysian GP from the outset – battling Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in signature style and leading the race.
Taking some risks and pushing despite his ongoing recovery from cracked vertebrae, Iannone eventually crashed out of the front group – along with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) - but not before having proved a timely reminder of why his recent absence from the MotoGP™ grid has been a notable one.
Andrea Iannone (DNF): “It was a great race, I started off really strongly and aggressively and immediately had a great scrap with Rossi. I really enjoyed it a lot and in the end, even though I crashed, I am pleased because I gave 100%. In view of my position in the championship, I ran my own race without thinking of the points and I opted to take some risks right until the very end. During the weekend we were missing a little something, because we were not able to improve the set-up of the bike after yesterday. We had some ideas and we hoped that the race was going to be dry, but it didn’t turn out that way.”