Iannone pleased with testing times

Andrea Iannone has walked away from the final testing days of the 2016 pre-season pleased with his times on the new GP16 Ducati machine, content with the progress he made.

Finally lapping the Losail International Circuit 0.7 off the incredible lap time set by Jorge Lorenzo to finish sixth overall, the Italian is nonetheless content with their overall progress.

Sitting out the chance to do a qualifying effort, Iannone instead concentrated on his race run, and despite losing out in his race run due to graining in the used soft tyre  (an issue experienced by a number of riders), he says they made big steps forwards.

“In the end these have been three days of positive tests and I am satisfied. We still have to understand a few things in view of the race, but I think that we have all the right cards to improve even more. For sure the data we picked up will be analysed carefully in the next few days and I am confident that during the race weekend we can improve our competitive level even more.

“On the final day we didn’t do a time-attack and we didn’t use a soft rear tyre to set our time, so I’m not worried about my position in the standings because we were doing a different job. Even though the long-run didn’t go the way I expected, we have prepared well for the race and I am calm and confident about the start of the season.”