December 17th is a day that Andrea Iannone will hardly be able to forget. In fact, today the four-year disqualification imposed for doping definitively expires and thus ends a dark chapter in his life and career. The rider from Vasto has already returned to smiling during the SBK tests carried out in Jerez de la Frontera last November, but even more now he can consider himself truly free.
Iannone starts again from Superbike, where in 2024 he will race with the Goeleven team's Ducati, with which he has already ridden in the two days of tests scheduled at the end of the season which ended two months ago now. Good start for the Italian, who was able to put himself to the test with some laps on the track that allowed him to shake off some rust and return to showing his talent.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Andrea Iannone, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
But from today the nightmare is truly over and Andrea can breathe again. Four years ago the blow came: a positive doping test result began an ordeal that forced him to be a spectator for four years. But let's go in order: the FIM announced on 17 December 2019 that it had suspended Andrea Iannone because he tested positive in a test.
Traces of anabolic steroids were found in the urine sample which apparently dated back to the Malaysian Grand Prix on 3 November of that same year. Iannone, who was racing in MotoGP at the time and was part of the Aprilia team, tried to defend himself, but the results of the counter-analysis in January 2020 confirmed the presence of the substance prohibited for athletes.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Andrea Iannone, Team Goeleven
Thus, on 10 November 2020, the then Aprilia rider was disqualified by the TAS of Lausanne for four years. Adding insult to injury: together with the disqualification, all the results obtained since 1 November 2019 were invalidated. Iannone never stopped training and getting on a motorbike, as much as he could do it on road and in limited conditions. After a brief stint on television, in which he also took part in television programs such as “Dancing with the Stars”, he decided to dedicate himself entirely to preparing to return to activity when the disqualification was over.
So it was and in 2023 the announcement came: starting from 2024, the year in which the disqualification would end, Andrea Iannone will return to being a full-fledged driver. With the MotoGP parenthesis over, a new chapter in the life and career of the Abruzzo native now begins. The Ducati awaits him, the private one designed by Goeleven with which he will relaunch himself. “I smiled when I drove”, were the first words after the tests carried out in Jerez de la Frontera. The nightmare is over, now peace seems to have returned for Iannone.
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