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A crazy Friday at Assen amid rain, cold and wind. Andrea Iannone took to the track for the first time at the TT with the Panigale V4, finishing 11th. Drawing a balance so far however is very complicated, especially considering the weather conditions.
The fact remains that the Go Eleven rider found positive sensations, despite the fact that the weekend represents a sort of closed box. So The Maniac is trying to take one step at a time with the goal of arriving at confidence and competitiveness.
"It was a wonderful return here in Assen," he began, smiling, "the problems are the rain and the temperatures, which are really low. It's very cold here in Holland and among other things there is a lot of water. This is my first time here at the TT with the Panigale and we hope to be competitive ahead of the weekend, as I like the track. Obviously it will be a blind challenge, considering that today the weather was entirely unpredictable, but we want to try to be competitive right from qualifying."
Andrea does not forget his past experiences, however, and it is those that he relies on.
"After such a long time, I don't remember much about what happened in the past. I only remember the Ducati Desmosedici in 2016, because it was the bike that excited me the most when I rode it. I don't remember the Suzuki and Aprilia, as it wasn't all spontaneous and natural like with the Ducati, while during the 2 years in the official Ducati team it was exciting to ride here. The engineers knew me well and I was able to do good things - I would like to come back with this bike at that level. It will take time, testing, but I feel the support of the people so there is a lot of potential ahead of us to exploit."
At the end of FP2 Andrea then apologized to Bautista, recounting what happened.
"I was passing him, I was on the outside, but under acceleration we stayed close, so at the braking of the next corner we almost touched. I apologized to him, since he had not seen me. To tell the truth I didn't understand much as I was following him, because you understand more from the data than from the track. That said, Alvaro and I have a riding style similar to MotoGP, in fact we look for the pick up, we slide the rear of the bike more, while other riders have a riding style closer to Moto2, that is round and without drifting. In Ducati we are the two riders who are looking more for this style of riding."
The Maniac's mind is already on Saturday.
"First of all, we hope to do a good qualifying, but it is difficult to evaluate now our potential as well as that of our opponents. It will be a bit of a blind day, because we understood very little today because of the conditions, and maybe that could also be a good thing."
Saturday therefore remains a big question mark for everyone.
"Having no data available, here in Assen I started from the same set-up as in Barcelona and we need time. I have on my side the experience in MotoGP and I remember virtually everything, in fact as I said I would like to bring to the V4 what is my background. However, we need time to do that."
Finally, there was no shortage of comments regarding Mauro Grassilli's presence in Assen.
"He called me before he left for Austin, telling me he was coming here to Assen. I haven't seen him yet, but I have known him since I was a kid and he is a great person."
