Another day of ups and downs for Team Go Eleven at the Cremona Circuit. Splendid podium in the Superpole Race, in third place, then in Race 2 Andrea Iannone was forced to retire due to contact with another rider, which broke the right footrest and the footbreak. Home weekend in which the points collected were much less than hoped for.
In the Warm Up Andrea tested the SCX development solution on the rear, to be evaluated in view of Race 2. Many constant laps, on the low 29, and the Best Lap on the last lap available. The small changes made seem to bring some improvements. The exit from turns nine to ten still needs to be slightly fixed.
Warm Up:
P 1 D. Petrucci 1.29.004
P 2 A. Lowes + 0.323
P 3 A. Iannone + 0.354
In the Superpole Race, the #29 rider starts well, defending the second position on the grid and starts chasing Petrucci. The Terni native from Barni has a couple of tenths of a margin, creates a slight gap, but Iannone manages to defend the second place until the last lap. Bulega and Lowes get closer, taking advantage of the tyre drop, on the last lap the Kawasaki rider manages to take the second position, but the Go Eleven team conquers the podium and maintains the front row for the main Race.
P 1 D. Petrucci 14’56.130
P 2 A. Lowes + 1.797
P 3 A. Iannone + 2.572
In Race 2 Andrea gets the best start of the weekend, overtaking Lowes and starting the pursuit of Petrucci. Bulega manages to take the position, the first three positions thus becoming Petrucci-Bulega-Iannone. A race of strategy begins, with the Go Eleven rider progressively losing contact with the first two. On the seventh lap he makes a slight mistake and drops to fifth position, chasing Alvaro Bautista. From then on, the difficulties on the front begin, leading the rider to arrive long in all the braking sections and thus to return to the fight in the group with Gerloff, Locatelli, Vierge. The #55 Yamaha, on lap fourteen, comes in contact with Iannone, breaking the right footrest and footbrake. Iannone tries to finish the race, but the rear wheel is almost blocked and he is forced to retire.
Race 2:
P 1 D. Petrucci 34’33.263
P 2 A. Bautista + 1.023
P 3 N. Bulega + 2.910
…
DNF A. Iannone
The two long races this weekend did not repay the efforts of the Team and the rider, taking zero points, despite the speed and pace to fight at the front. Superpole and short race show that the team’s work is good and the speed is there. Now the goal is to continue fighting at the top in the last three WorldSBK races, on three circuits that are well suited to the bike-rider package. Next stop, Aragon back to back without a break, next weekend!
Andrea Iannone (Rider): “Today we achieved a podium in the Superpole Race, which is always a great result, especially in front of so many Italian fans. Unfortunately, in the long races things didn’t go as we hoped, but we still showed that we can be fast. We hope to be able to make some progress in the next race weekend in Aragon.”
