Ducati Corse’s Andrea Iannone returned to action today in Malaysia after a four-race absence with a back injury, but showed no signs of rustiness as he immediately got to grips with his Desmosedici GP16 in FP1 by setting the fourth fastest time.
The Italian fractured his T3 vertebra in a crash at Misano in September and has been on the sidelines since, only briefly making an appearance in Aragon practice to assess his condition. Originally intending to come back for last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, he deferred his return to this weekend and this looks to have been the correct decision.
Iannone eased himself back into a rhythm on his bike, though immediately found a good balance and feeling on his Ducati. This allowed him to up his pace gradually throughout the session, ending it with a very respectable 2m01.521s to go just three tenths of a second off of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez’ pace.
Iannone decided to sit out the second free practice session this afternoon due to the mixed weather conditions, the Italian keen not to do any further damage to himself by taking an unnecessary risk. Despite staying in the garage in the afternoon, he was nonetheless happy to be back on the bike and was surprised at just how little he struggled in FP1.
“It was a positive return: I expected to struggle a lot more, not really physically but in general in getting back up to speed, but already in the first practice session I had an excellent feeling with my bike and was feeling good,” he said.
“So in the end I am pleased with how this first day went after my long period away from the track. This afternoon we opted not to go out in the wet so as to avoid taking any unnecessary risk, but obviously if it continues to rain tomorrow we will start to get ready in case the race on Sunday is a wet one.”
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