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Iannone says Ducati was a “disaster” in Argentina practice

Ducati rider Andrea Iannone says the feeling with his bike during the first two practice sessions for the Argentina MotoGP race was a “disaster”.

Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team

Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team

Ducati Corse

The Italian, who was one of the stars of the season-opening race in Qatar, had a torrid time at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit on Friday, coming 18th and 15th respectively in the two practice sessions.

Afterwards, Iannone was at a loss to explain what was going wrong aboard the Desmosedici GP16.

“This situation in the MotoGP class is really strange,” he said. “The principal problem for me is the grip on the bike, at the front and the rear.

“It’s very difficult to improve this situation, at the moment the feeling of the bike is a disaster. We try tomorrow and I hope small changes will give us a big step.”

“Nobody has grip”

Iannone’s factory Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso topped a first practice session characterised by an extremely dirty track, before fading to 10th in the second session.

“The biggest limit is the front tyre,” explained the Italian. “Nobody has grip, it’s difficult to brake hard, and in the middle of the corner when you open the throttle, the front closes every time.

“So it’s very difficult to manage and to do a good laptime, because we are very slow. With these conditions you can’t ride like in the first three tests and the Qatar race, it’s completely different.

“The biggest positive with the Michelin normally is mid-corner speed, here it’s the biggest negative – everybody has to adapt.”

Additional reporting by Federico Faturos

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