In both 2015 and 2014 Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) finished as the best Ducati rider in fifth. As the 2016 German GP began he was again the fastest Ducati but was an impressive second, the only rider able to end within half a second of Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar). His speed was no fluke, setting back-to-back 1’22s in Free Practice 2. Iannone was one of only three riders to set successive 1’22 laps throughout the course of the day. Third fastest overall, Iannone was joined in the top five by teammate Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), proving the 2016 Desmosedici GP is a major step forward.
"I started off very confident and I like the way the bike behaves"The strong start to the weekend surprised Iannone himself who was expecting his performance to be similar to that of earlier years. Iannone was pleased not just with his pace, but also by the tyres supplied by Michelin, grip issues coming from the lack of heat rather than the tyres themselves. Saturday could produce very different conditions again and being able to quickly adapt will be crucial, especially during the shootout stage of Free Practice 3.
Andrea Iannone: “At the end of the day, I am satisfied. Both this morning and this afternoon the feeling with the bike was very good: I started off very confident and I like the way the bike behaves. I’m a bit surprised, because both last year and in 2014 we struggled quite a lot here, and so it means that once again we have all managed to do a good job together. Today we had a few problems with grip in general, but I think this is a problem that everyone has. In my opinion, Michelin brought the right tyres for this circuit, but the only problem is that the temperature was too low today and so we had to adapt the set-up of the bike to deal with the situation.”