Aprilia Team Gresini’s Andrea Iannone reckons the German GP at the Sachsenring this weekend will be a ‘good test’ for the RS-GP against their factory rivals.
Iannone moved to Aprilia for 2019 after being dropped from Suzuki’s line-up in favour of Joan Mir, who moved up from Moto2.
The Italian, who has a sole MotoGP victory courtesy of winning the 2017 Austrian GP when competing for the factory Ducati squad, has so far struggled to get to grips with the RS-GP in ’19.
He has been out-paced by team-mate Aleix Espargaro all year, qualifying last several times this season amid reports of a lack of motivation.
He scored his first top ten finish for Aprilia last time out in the Dutch TT at Assen despite starting from 21st after he failed to get a fast lap together in qualifying.
Iannone looked blisteringly quick during Friday practice, setting the fourth fastest time in FP2 after utilising a tow from Honda’s Marc Marquez.
The Vasto-native is looking forward to learning more about his new machine, saying he hopes to find a greater understanding of the bike.
“I think Sachsenring is a really difficult track because it’s pretty narrow and we’ll try our best,” said Iannone.
“The electronic side will be important and we will work on this side and it’s a really good test to compare with other factories.
“This is the first year for us and we want to understand everything as best as possible. We will see and we hope to continue to work in this way.
“The Sachsenring is very complicated, narrow and twisty. It will be an important test bench for us.
“The goal is to have another good weekend after the one in Assen, where we had a nice confidence boost.”
Discussion about this post