Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) closed out his time with the Borgo Panigale factory in stunning style at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valencia, fighting off Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in a classic battle to complete the podium in his final appearance in red. The ‘Maniac’ is still recovering from cracked vertebrae sustained in a crash in Misano, but gritted his teeth through the pain barrier and used the strengths of his Desmosedici to his advantage.
Andrea Iannone (P3): “I’m happy about this last race. I fought a lot from the beginning and started really well. I tried to follow Jorge but he had incredible pace. I tried my best and I’m very happy. The feeling since Friday was very bad and I didn’t think it would be possible to improve so much – but with my team and the engineers they told me “believe and believe in you”. And today this result was possible. I’m very happy because I pushed at 100% and battled with Marc and Valentino…it was difficult, but I was all in in this race. I knew it would be painful and I’d have less energy. That’s why I tried to take Valentino back and then the bike’s speed on the straight gave me some time to recover. I think we had a great battle, and a great result in my last race with my team and with Ducati, and I wanted to end it with this result.”