Factory Ducati rider Andrea Iannone will sit out this weekend’s Aragon Grand Prix due to severe neck pain, a hangover from his FP1 crash at Misano two weeks ago where he fractured his T3 vertebra.
Iannone was forced to miss the San Marino race because of the vertebra fracture, but was declared fit to ride by MotoGP medical staff on Thursday. There were still a few question marks over whether he would see out the weekend, the Italian himself stating that he would wait and see how he felt after a few laps on the bike.
The Austrian Grand Prix winner made it through FP1 without incident and was a respectable sixth on the time sheets, his best lap of 1m49.601s putting him just eight tenths of a second off the pace.
However, afterwards he said that he was suffering badly with the pain in his neck and from a complete lack of energy after only a handful of laps. Wisely, he has taken the decision to rest up for the gruelling triple-header flyaway portion of the season starting in Japan next month.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro was flown out to Aragon last night in case his services would be required, and will once again take the place of Iannone at the factory squad. This will be the first time Pirro has raced in Aragon since 2012, when he rode a FTR Honda CRT machine for the San Carlo Gresini team. He finished that race in the points in 15th.
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