Except for the MotoGP title struggle, the opposite main on-track story on the 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix was Andrea Iannone’s return.
The one-time grand prix winner was drafted in by the VR46 Ducati squad to interchange Fabio Di Giannantonio, who ended his season early to bear surgical procedure on his left shoulder he injured on the Austrian GP.
Iannone hadn’t raced in MotoGP because the 2019 Valencia GP, after which he was suspended from competitors and subsequently sentenced to a four-year ban for a doping violation.
In his first MotoGP race since then, Iannone was a formidable seventeenth in qualifying however the bodily toll of contemporary grand prix equipment meant he might do not more than end second-to-last in each races.
“He was all smiles when he got here again, it was a special Iannone to the one which left I suppose you may say, that took himself a bit extra severely,” Crash’s MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren, who was at Sepang, stated of Iannone’s return.
“However he was simply loving being again, and as he tried to emphasize over the weekend simply the fact of using these trendy MotoGP bikes simply bodily destroyed him.
“The higher physique, the braking, he might simply not… as he stated, the restrict isn’t the tyres, the restrict is Andrea. It was fairly stunning that anyone who is clearly nonetheless a really match particular person, nonetheless racing full-time in World Superbikes, was emphasising simply how troublesome it’s, how bodily completely different.
“I feel he in contrast World Superbikes, the bodily effort, to using your bicycle so far as leaning the bike over, the dearth of aero, the braking and all the pieces else.
“However definitely he confirmed the velocity was nonetheless there. There was some extent in qualifying, he was following Bezzecchi and truly if he hadn’t have run huge at that ultimate nook he may of even have outpaced him.
“So, it was spectacular given he hadn’t achieved any testing, the velocity remains to be clearly there, he’s nonetheless a really gifted rider as I feel all of us knew. However definitely by Sunday night he regarded fairly worn out by all of it.”
Andrea Iannone
Crash Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan added: “Had [Lorenzo] Savadori not been there then Iannone is final in each race.
“It wouldn’t actually be honest to count on anything as a result of he’s been off the bike for therefore lengthy and Sepang is bodily. The entire level wasn’t to significantly do something, it was Valentino [Rossi] wished to provide Iannone one thing again and that’s honest sufficient.
“The qualifying lap was positively intriguing, and it’s what if?
“Wanting on the means issues had been entering into 2019, and also you bear in mind in the beginning of 2020 the 2 Aprilia riders – Iannone and Espargaro – truly fell out fairly onerous as a result of Iannone took numerous undue credit score for bike growth and Aleix wasn’t very pleased on the staff launch in Qatar.
“You had been a scenario the place even with out the ban, Iannone in all probability nonetheless wasn’t going to be on the grid in 2024.
“It’s irritating, is not it, as a result of we all know fast Iannone is and was, and he ought to in all probability have greater than the one MotoGP win that he has.
“However simply this irritating character that targeted a bit an excessive amount of on his self-importance and, as Pete says, perhaps took himself a bit too severely.
“I feel there’s an argument to be made that perhaps there’s a bit extra to Iannone than everyone seems to be conscious of and maybe with a greater surrounding and correct assist we would have had a greater model of the rider in MotoGP.
“As it’s, the way in which life has gone for him it’s made him a bit extra well-rounded, and the way in which he was talking to the press was much more human.
“It’s a disgrace it took what it took for him to change into the rider he ought to have been, as a result of had he been the way in which he was this weekend all through his profession, coupled with that velocity, coupled with that feisty character, Iannone would have been huge for MotoGP.”
For Crash’s Social Media Supervisor Jordan Moreland: “I feel each sport has that sort of character and I feel Iannone is certainly certainly one of bike racing’s characters.
“I feel if he ever releases a guide it will be a best-seller, actually. I feel there’s much more to Iannone than simply what we see. It was type of good to see him bike in MotoGP for me.
“After I noticed him on observe he didn’t look misplaced, it regarded like he’d been there all alongside. He simply regarded like he all the time regarded and simply to see somebody… the Italian riders talked about they watched him on TV and so they’re sharing the field with him.
“It was type of comparable for me, like ‘Oh yeah, there’s Iannone once more’. It was type of cool. However he’s positively a personality and has positively modified through the years.”
