After taking victory in his year back racing in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Champion, ‘The Maniac’ is now making another comeback – this time, to MotoGP™! Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) will replace Fabio Di Giannantonio at the Pertamina Enduro SKY VR46 Ducati outfit for the final two rounds of the 2024 MotoGP™ season, taking place at Sepang in Malaysia and the season finale in Valencia, Spain. It’ll be Iannone’s first appearance since the 2019 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, where he was a race leader for Aprilia before not taking part in the remainder of the season and the start of his four-year ban.
Iannone is no stranger to MotoGP™ at all, having raced there his entire professional racing life from 2005 to 2019, where he won in 125cc, Moto2™ and MotoGP™, famously ending Ducati’s win drought with victory at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Iannone moved to Suzuki where he achieved podiums across 2017 and 2018 but it was a difficult year at Aprilia in 2019, bringing just three top ten finishes and a best of P6 in Australia.
After his four year ban, the #29 was once again back on a race track and he stole the show immediately in World Superbike, taking the opening holeshot of the 2024 season and taking a debut podium. Four more podiums followed, including a sensational victory at MotorLand Aragon, becoming the eight different winner of 2024 and the 19th to win in both MotoGP™ and WorldSBK. Eighth overall in the Championship standings, there’ll be no expectactions for Iannone’s return to MotoGP™ for Valentino Rossi’s Ducati squad.
Speaking ahead of the penultimate MotoGP™ round of the year and his first in over five years, Iannone said: “Riding the world champion bike is exciting. MotoGP™ is the most technological and high-performance bike, I’m honored that they thought of me and I felt like I had to say yes to this opportunity immediately as soon as it was offered to me. The challenge is certainly crazy, complex and demanding, as I haven’t ridden a bike in this category for years and without having done tests or similar. I’m excited to be able to work with Ducati and the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, both for the very high level and for the friendship since years. I thank Valentino Rossi, Alessio Salucci, Pablo Nieto, Gigi Dall’Igna, Claudio Domenicali and Mauro Grassilli.”
Alessio Salucci, Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team director welcomed Iannone back to the paddock with open arms: “I am very happy to confirm that Andrea will race with our colors on the Ducati Desmosedici GP. First of all, Andrea has shown to be in great shape, he closed the WorldSBK season on a high and has always remained close to Ducati. He is a great friend of the VR46 family, both mine and Vale’s. We are very happy to welcome him to the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team and to see him back on a MotoGP™ bike; it’s a really great story! At the same time, we all wish Fabio the best of luck as he will undergo shoulder surgery this week and we can’t wait to see him back on track in 2025”.
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Source: WorldSBK.com