A difficult Saturday in Jerez and below expectations for Team Go Eleven and Andrea Iannone: good speed with a mild climate, then a Race 1 in defense, also due to bad luck in Superpole and starting from the back.
In FP3 Iannone starts with the used tyres in FP2, then tests the SCQ with the aim of being ready for qualifying. He achieves a good P2, almost missing the first time by a few thousandths, concentrating the advantage in the second and last sector. Everything is ready for qualifying, there are still some doubts in terms of set-up to solve for Race 1.
Free Practice 3:
P 1 G. Gerloff 1.39.166
P 2 A. Iannone + 0.018
P 3 I. Lecuona + 0.088
In Superpole Andrea finds the right references on the track during the first attempt and inserts himself behind the BMW duo formed by Toprak and Van der Mark, thus taking the temporary top 6. After a stop in the pits he tries again with the second tyre, in the first two sectors he finds the best personal references, in line with a low 38, then in turn 6 Rea goes down on the inside and the whole group, including Iannone, is forced to slow down. He thus finishes eleventh, in the center of the group, in the fourth row. It’s a shame because the speed to get into the first two rows was there, it was just a bit of luck that was missing.
Superpole:
P 1 N. Bulega 1.37.596
P 2 T: Razgatlioglu + 0.606
P 3 A. Lowes + 0.706
…
P 11 A. Iannone + 1.226
In Race 1 Andrea starts with the idea of recovering several positions, but the mess in turn 1 forces him to be overtaken by a couple of riders. The attempt to recover begins, until the eighth lap the pace is good, similar to the fight for the podium; the central part of the race however proves not to be incisive, so much so that he suffers the overtaking of Rea. In the last five laps the pace improves, but every time he tries to get closer to the rider in front, the tyre starts to slide, without giving him the possibility to attack. He finishes in twelfth place, not the result he hoped for but still worth the Best Independent of the day. The gap from the podium is not huge, but he needs to find greater consistency for the final Sunday.
Race 1:
P 1 N. Bulega 34’15.509
P 2 T. Razgatliogliu + 6.067
P 3 A. Locatelli + 9.361
…
P 12 A. Iannone + 19.773
Andrea Iannone (Rider):“Today was not a positive day for us, after Friday’s practice I expected to be able to fight in other positions, but we struggled a lot with traction and rear grip. I scored some points, but we need to analyze the data well and find a solution for tomorrow, we hope to do better in Race 2 and finish the championship in the best possible way.”
Denis Sacchetti (Team Manager):“Unfortunately today was not a positive day for us; in qualifying Andrea had to abort his fastest lap due to a crash by Rea, thus losing two rows, while in Race 1 we never found the right pace to recover. We were unable to find rear traction, even though in the last laps we were improving. We archive this Saturday with the best Independent, a slight consolation for a complicated day.”
