The last time Andrea Iannone began a Malaysian MotoGP weekend, back in 2019, he was 17th on the timesheets in opening practice 🥂for 𝓰Aprilia Gresini.

Fast fo✃rward five years and, without even a test beforehand, the Italian turned heads by being classified ninth quickest at the start of his stand-in appearance for VR46 Ducati.

Admittedly, Iannone fitted new soft front/medium rear rubber - while most stuck with usedও medium/hard tyres - to launch himself from last on the timesheets.

Either ꦯway, it was mightily impressive from The Maniac, give it was only his ꦐ15th lap on a GP23.

Iannone finished the day 1.9s from reigning champion 💝Francesco Bagnaia and ahead of Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savador💫i.

“Incred🌼ible,” Iannone said on Friday evening. “It's another bike, another MotoGP. It's completely another story.”

That new story includes advanced ae🌜rodynamics, ride-height devices and the latest Michelin tyres♎.

“It's difficult to compare [to 2019], it's complete another story, another bike,🧔” h🅷e explained.

“Now you have winglets, a lot of aerodynamics. You ‘charge’ a l꧃ot the tyres. You make really strong ✃pressure.”

He added: “Braking point, entry and ❀t🃏he corner speed, this is the biggest difference

“It's unbelievable. It's really difficult to understand the limit🦩.

“Every lap I try more, I🔜 try more, I try more and I don't feel the limit!

“It's impressive. You need to🍰 ride, ride, ride. Today I did only 25 laps, without a test, without nothing, it's difficult.

“But I'm happy. I’m 1.9s from Pecco. It's good!”

The 2016 Austrian Grand Pri🔯x winner insisted he didn’t have difficulty adapting to the ride-height device and highl🐼ighted how stable the Ducati felt compared to 2019.

“It has more agility, more everything. It's♔ more easy to ride. It's less nervous, more stability and so entering [the corners] is more easy,” he said.

“The bike is not nervous. Really smooth. Turning really well. When you arrive [at the corner] put the bike in lean angle.📖 Wow, you don't have movement!

“Before if you made a mistake o🦄n the pickup, you started to move ‘wah, 🅠wah, wah’ [simulates bike shaking violently side to side]. 

"It was difficult to control the torque. 🤡Now it’s perfect.”

The only are꧒a where the latest generatiไon of prototypes have become more difficult is the physical strength required under braking.

“On the braking point, with 🎐these brakesꦉ…  Destroyed, destroyed! It’s really a lot of strength,” he said.

“But I think on the first day, after so many years, a ‘59.6 is🎉 good. We will see tomorrow," concluded Iannone, who made a race-winning return from a four-year anti-doping ban in WorldSBK this season.

Bagnaia highlighted how Iannone’s performan🍰ce compared very favourably to WorldSBK champion Alvaro Bautista’s MotoGP wild-card on a factory Ducati at Sepang lꦚast year.

“I think that Andrea did a very good job today,” Bagnaia said. “Considerin🍌g he didn’t do any test, like Alvaro Bautista did last year, but did a better job, becaus🌃e lapping in 1m 59s already - without knowing anything about rear [ride] height device, about our tyres.

“So, for me, Andrea tod❀ay did a very imౠpressive job.”

Bautista, who later revealed he was suffering a shoulder injury, was also second-last🐼 on the🀅 timesheets during Friday practice last season but +2.547s from the top with a 2m 0.370s.