As we reported yesterday, Pramac Ducati rider Andrea Iannone is moving to the full factory Ducati team next year with the departure of Cal Crutchlow. You may not know much about Iannone, but he has tremendous potential.
Iannone will celebrate his 25th birthday tomorrow at Indianapolis where he will race Sunday. He has never won a GP title, but since moving to the 125 GP class in 2005, he has won 12 Grand Prix races. Before moving up to MotoGP in 2013, Iannone won 8 Moto2 races, including 5 races while both Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro were in that class (not an easy task). Iannone has been known, somewhat, for inconsistency, but no one doubts his outright speed.
He has yet to take a win or a podium in the MotoGP category, but don’t be surprised to see Iannone near the front, particularly next year when he has full factory support behind him. As it stands, it is not uncommon to see Iannone quicker than both of the current Ducati factory riders, Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso. Indeed, earlier today during Indy practice, Iannone’s best lap time was second only to Marc Marquez (Dovizioso was 4th quickest, and Crutchlow 13th). We would not be surprised to see Iannone emerge as the lead rider at Ducati in the future.
M3’s now on track. let’s get ready to rumbllllle…! (Buffer voice, please don’t sue)
Moto2 is known for tightly packed groups fighting for position and in that class, this guy has walked away from the rest of them and finished WAY ahead of 2nd place. If they can get a competitive bike under him (a big “if”, I know), he will be all over Marquez.
Well ahead of second place, like in 1st?
So far ahead of second place, he almost won the PREVIOUS race…
Don’t get me wrong, I love Marquez.
But everyone wins if we get someone or something to compete directly with him, the sooner the better.
Go Ducati! Go Iannone!
Wow. Can’t wait to watch this kid closer next season. Wonder if he’ll start getting better factory goodies this season too…