Iannone: “For us it’s important to start from the first row”

Rain in the desert? Sadly enough, yes. Saturday’s track action at Losail International Circuit was eventually called off completely after adverse weather both overnight and in the morning made track conditions too dangerous, meaning the grid is decided from combined practice times. That means Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Andrea Iannone begins his first GP with the Hamamatsu factory from P2.

Now focused on maximising the extended 30-minute Warm Up on Sunday, the Italian knows those with whom he shares the front row are ominous – Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) – but is ready to fight it out and try and close the gap on race pace.

Andrea Iannone, P2: “For us it’s important to start from the first row and it’s the best for tomorrow. But it’s difficult for us because we don’t know what will happen in the race. Maverick and Marc have good pace we saw from the test, and we have to recover. Tomorrow we’ll try our best in the first lap and in the race. But the practice before is also important because we need the information to improve. Today safety is more important and it’s too dangerous to go out on track. It’s the same for everyone and the most important thing now is tomorrow.”