Sunday afternoon's Argentina Grand Prix turned out to be a very tricky one for Suzuki Ecstar rider Andrea Iannone who finished out of the points down in 16th place.
The entire race had been a tough one for Iannone: stuck in the pack right after the start, he lost some positions after another rider crashed into him from behind; he managed not to crash his own bike, but lost precious positions.
Then he was penalised with a “ride through” for a jump start he did at the beginning.
This put him in the difficult position to catch up from the very bottom of the pack and ruined his race. His pace was very positive, close to the top riders, but not enough to close the gap. He finished in 16th place.
“I got a ride through penalization and my feeling is that it was too harsh. In my opinion I didn't gain any advantage because I just moved a bit but then immediately stopped. On the contrary, I also got hit by another rider at corner 1, causing me to lose many positions,” he explained. “Because of this, my opinion is that the Race Direction could have given another evaluation of the situation, and maybe not dictate such a penalising ride through.”
“Of course this, together with the contact at corner 1, in which I lost many positions, affected my whole race. It's a shame because my pace after the penalty was good, maybe not enough for the podium, but for sure I could have fought for the top 6. It's not been a good start of the season for me. We have to change our pace and get a new start. We deserve better results.”
