VR46 confirm Andrea Iannone's MotoGP comeback

One-time MotoGP race winner Andrea Iannone will make his grand prix comeback in Malaysia with the VR46 Ducati team as Fabio Di Giannantonio’s replacement.

After badly dislocating his left shoulder during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Di Giannantonio announced last week in Australia that he would be ending his season early to have surgery.

Di Giannantonio’s final race of 2024 was the Thai GP, in which he was fourth on his VR46-run GP23 Ducati.

Since announcement of his season-ending surgery - which will take place this Saturday - rumours have been rife that former MotoGP rider Iannone was in contention to replace Di Giannantonio for the final races.

The VR46 squad has confirmed that Iannone will ride in place of Di Giannantonio in Malaysia, though is yet to announce him for Valencia. 

Iannone last raced in MotoGP in 2019 when he was an Aprilia rider, but was retroactively disqualified from that year’s Malaysian and Valencia GPs after he was served with a doping ban.

The 2016 Austrian GP winner was found to have ingested a banned anabolic steroid, which he said came from meat contamination while in Malaysia in 2019.

However, this defence was rejected during appeal proceedings and the World Anti-Doping Agency successfully had Iannone’s ban extended to the maximum of four years.

That expired in time for the 2024 racing season, with Iannone earning a place on the World Superbike grid with GoEleven Ducati and managed a win in his rookie campaign.

“Riding the world champion bike is exciting,” Iannone said.

“MotoGP is the most technological and high-performance bike, I'm honoured 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.”

Uccio Salucci, team director for VR46, added: “I am very happy to confirm that Andrea will race with our colours 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.”

In a statement issued to Crash.net, WADA said this on Iannone’s return: “Under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code, once an athlete has served the imposed period of ineligibility, he or she is free to return to participation. The level of competition is not relevant to this.”