Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has had a tough season so far, but the Italian has found some positive steps forward since the summer break and the first real display of that in Austria came in FP3 – with Iannone blasting straight into the top ten from outside the top twenty and easily moving straight into Q2.
On race day it was slightly tougher going as the Italian suffered more with tyre performance, but he says the solution is ‘achievable’ – and took home a solid points finish in P11. Crucially, braking is one step forward – something the ‘Maniac’’s style relies on.
Andrea Iannone, P11: “To me this weekend has been positive, despite the final position not being satisfactory. We made some improvements and we lowered the gap. At many moments of the weekend we were close to the competitiveness that we would like to have. We know we struggle more in the race. We suffer with the drop in tyre performance, but we are working on that and I see positive feedback from Suzuki. The solution is achievable but not as immediate as we’d like, so we have to put up with it and keep on. I can see that I am not the only one in this and they all are making an effort to try to improve. This is something I really appreciate and I will do my best to give them what they deserve. We need to be patient, but in these last two races we learned so much; this will be useful. Here in Austria we suffered a lot with the tyre drop, maybe with the electronics we can solve the problem, and also with some improvements in the chassis or setup. At the same time we improved the braking considerably, which was a crucial point for me. This means that little by little we are getting there.”