Andrea Iannone “really happy” with Australian WorldSBK podiums after “scary” moment

Andrea Iannone’s second World Superbike season started with two podiums, but his tally almost never got off the mark.

The Italian looked set to challenge for the podium positions in Saturday’s Race 1 when he encountered a technical problem and slipped from second to ninth, before recovering to sixth.

On Sunday, things almost got worse for Iannone when Toprak Razgatlioglu entered turn four with too much speed and had to head for the run-off. The Turkish rider managed to squeeze his way between Iannone and Nicolo Bulega without making contact as he headed to the run-off, and Iannone was able to eventually finish the race in second behind Bulega.

“In the Superpole Race, I think at the beginning it was a little bit scary, but fortunately nothing happened and I enjoyed riding,” Iannone said.

“But I felt I missed something on the grip, and for the second race we wanted to make [the bike] a little bit stronger in this point, so I think we took what we needed.”

Iannone backed up his second place in the Superpole Race with a third in Race 2, behind Bulega and the second factory Ducati of Alvaro Bautista. Although it wasn’t victory, Iannone was pleased with his results on Sunday.

“Sincerely, I’m really happy about today,” Iannone told WorldSBK.com.

“I think we took the maximum we have and we arrive really close to the factory [Ducati] team – this is the target.

“For sure, every rider wants to win, but in any case we are small and strong.

“We changed a little bit the setup for the second race and we improved a little bit.

“I want to say thanks to Ducati because we have help from Ducati and this is a good thing for us.”