Can you be born more than once? If we ask Andrea Iannone this question, his answer will be affirmative. The rider from Vasto was reborn last November, when he returned to the saddle of a motorbike for the first Superbike tests in view of 2024. He was reborn at Phillip Island, where he kicked off his adventure in series derivatives, showing himself to be competitive right from the start. right away.
But Andrea Iannone was also reborn in Aragon, where last Saturday, in Race 1, he returned to the top step of the podium. The Goeleven standard bearer waited 2967 days before tasting the sweetness of victory again. That Saturday afternoon at Motorland, the air was cooler: he could really breathe again. A tough rider, a man who seems like he can’t be affected by anything, let his emotions come out forcefully during the Inno de’ Mameli, which was played for him on Saturday afternoon.
These 2967 days have been long, very long. Iannone told them, he made everyone aware of his suffering, of what in his opinion was an injustice that took away four years of racing from him. A driver forced not to compete is a lion in a cage, looking for alternatives, reinventing himself and trying to distract himself. But nothing like the feeling of riding a motorcycle and winning races.
Iannone was the only one in Moto2 who managed to hold his own, but above all to beat Marc Marquez. A feat that is not to be taken for granted, if we think about the Spaniard’s dominance. But, above all, Iannone remained in the hearts of Ducatisti for that victory in Austria. At the Red Bull Ring, the rider from Vasto achieved his first (and so far only) success in MotoGP, bringing Ducati back to the top step of the podium for the first time since Casey Stoner’s last triumph at Philipp Island six years before.
Then the parenthesis in Suzuki and, finally, the season in Aprilia which he was unable to complete due to the darkness that surrounded him for the next four years. A four-year period full of questions, thoughts, anger and despair. But with only one certainty: the desire to get back on a motorbike and demonstrate one’s innocence, but above all to return to breathing the clean, fresh and pleasant air of the track.
That of the Goeleven team was a gamble: the team led by Gianni Ramello loves challenges, it is a group that is not afraid of launching into new adventures and there could not have been a better place for the rebirth of Andrea Iannone. In an unofficial team, with family management and an environment that is anything but hostile, the life as a driver of the Abruzzese restarted, and he found in the Piedmontese team the ideal atmosphere to explode again.
Andrea Iannone, Team Go Eleven
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
So it was: there was no shortage of difficulties, in a new environment you have to take measures, you have to adapt and learn. Yet, ready, go, in Australia he returned to competing giving the sensation that he had never stopped. Being able to get on the third step of the podium after a four-year hiatus raised everyone’s expectations, who believed a constant world championship fight was possible.
The reality was different and, as beautiful as dreaming is, not everything is always easy. But step by step, brick by brick, Iannone and the team have laid the foundations to be able to try to look down on everyone again. The satisfactions after the hard work arrived in Aragon, where everything smelled of sparkling wine and the heart was light again. Where Andrea Iannone was reborn.
Welcome back, Andrea!
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