The World Superbike grid was shaken up quite a bit today with Andrea Iannone winning the race and throwing a wrench in the World Superbike championship race for the front runners. Race 1 was full of drama with Nicolo Bulega having to sit out due to an issue on the warm up lap and Sam Lowes experiencing a major failure that resulted in a high side crash.
It had been 2967 days since Andrea Iannone had last stepped foot on the podium. 8 years had passed and today he stood on the top of the podium; a poetic finish nonetheless. Iannone said “I am very happy with this victory, which has a very important meaning for me, it is a personal satisfaction, a revenge after the difficult moments we have gone through.
I owe a lot to all the people who have been close to me and who have welcomed me. I thank Gigi Dall’Igna, Claudio Domenicali, Paolo Ciabatti, Marco Zambenedetti, Mauro Grassilli, the whole Go Eleven team and the WorldSBK family. Having won both in MotoGP and WorldSBK is incredible. It is a special moment. This year I have achieved 4 podiums, with this 5, and 1 victory. As a first year back it was difficult to ask for more than this. Now we look with confidence and optimism to tomorrow’s races.”
Denis Sacchetti (Team Manager, Go Eleven): “I still can’t describe today, I don’t have the words, it was an incredible race, which Andrea managed and won with great intelligence. Seeing him ride here in Aragon is amazing, and today even in the garage a perfect job was done, the bike was fast and Iannone rode it perfectly. It was great to see him fight with Danilo and Toprak, I can’t wait for the races to start tomorrow. On the last lap my eyes were shining, because after everything Andrea has been through in the last 4 years, today he took a satisfaction that is worth more than anything in the world, and I was excited for both him and me. I want to thank all the people who support us, our staff, the sponsors and Ducati for this Saturday!”
Razgatlioglu Returns to Podium After Injury Hiatus
Toprak Razgatlioglu got right back to business by securing a P2 finished. Despite his time away missing two rounds Razgatliglu still holds the championship lead over Nicolo Bulega who had a technical failure that removed him from race 1.
Full results