MotoGP: Iannone struggles with ‘dramatically changing’ GSX-RR

Andrea Iannone has come away from the Dutch TT disappointed with his performances on the factory Suzuki machine after only just making it home inside the top ten thanks to rapidly changing conditions affecting the performance of the GSX-RR.

A frequent complaint from both Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaró in 2016, Suzuki had believed that they had fixed the bike’s performance issues in the rain – but Sunday’s race proved to Iannone that there’s still work to do on the machine.

“The first part of the race was very positive, I jumped from the 16th place which was not easy, but I managed to recover and get into the top 10. I had a good rhythm, very close to the top. Then we had some problems with the grip. When tyres drop, the GSX-RR dramatically changes its behaviour, and I couldn’t be as effective as I wanted. We have to learn how to better manage these situations and keep closer to our competitors.”

However, teammate Alex Rins was much more content with his performance in his first race back after a long absence, returning to the premiere class for only the third time in eight races after badly breaking his wrist at the third round of the championship in Austin back in April.

The rookie came home in 17^th after first pitting for wet tyres in the damp race and then being involved in a collision with Danilo Petrucci as the Ducati rider lapped him without blue flags being shown. But, despite that, Rins says there’s a lot of positives to take from the weekend.

“I’m happy about this race. It’s positive that at the end of this weekend I was able to experience all of these different conditions: dry, then wet, and also the flag to flag. The start of the race was not a good one, and I struggled to find the pace, but then I managed to get more confident and I could overtake and recover.

“When it started to rain I took a risk in swapping the bike, because I was already feeling less than comfortable, and I thought it would rain more heavily. That didn’t happen, so the result was that I lost time, but this also means more experience for me. I’m sorry for the final lap. What happened was that I didn’t see the blue flags, and my position was a bother to Petrucci, so I apologise to him.”