Andrea Iannone: “My target is a little bit more than this”
From 15th in Superpole, And﷽rea Iannone recovered to finish fourth in Race 2 at the Portuguese WorldSBK.
Andrea Iannone arrived at yet another new circuit in his debut WorldSBK season at Portimao, ending the weekend with a fourth position in Rac👍e 2.
Iannone’s weekend started out badly, with a crash in ꩵFP1. That set him off on the back foot, and he qualified down in 15th. A crash in Ra♔ce 1 continued the bad form of the weekend for the Italian.
“It was a stupid crash,” Iannone🤡 told WorldSBK.꧋com after Race 2 in Portimao, “because I didn’t push more, I enter with 2kph more [than usual] in the middle of the corner, and I lost the front. It’s difficult, the first corner here: I touched a bump, and I lost the front.”
But a strong Superpole Race on Sunday afternoon meant he started Sunday e𓆉vening’s Race 2 from ninth place. From there, he moved forwards to event🅰ually finish fourth.
“We are always struggling a little bit to recover positions, because we start from 15th position,” Iannone said. “But today I 🐭think we recover a little bit, I started well in the second race and have a good pace for al🔯l the race, and we are really close to the top riders, the factory bikes. When we are close this year it’s a good result for us.
"For sure, I want more, because for 🤡me my target is a little bit more than this. But, in any case, today we achieve a good result with the package we have, so not bad."
For Iannone, a part of his improvement on Sunday cᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ�💖�ᩚᩚᩚompared to Friday and Saturday was about him learning the layout in Portimao.
“Day by day I lea🍌rned the track, and this is important because it’s a really technical track,” he said. “It’s not easy: the references here are really difficult to take.”
It’s not the first time learning a new circuit this year for Iannone, who was out of action for four years prior to 2024 and is in his debut cam✨paign in WorldSBK.
“The good thing is that this year there a🐎re many first times for me,” Iannone said. “It💖’s the first time on a Superbike, first time with Pirelli, first time in some tracks, and it’s not bad. For sure, I struggle, but in Most I struggle on the first day but in the end we achieved a podium and [in Portimao] we made a really good recovery in Race 2.”
There will be more learning for Iannone to do at the next race in France, as the Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours 🐻is another that he is yet to race on.
Alex joined the team in August of 2024 hav🦹ing covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown f🍬or two years.
