Andrea Iannone

Sportsman, motorcycle racer

Andrea Iannone’s career began at the age of 15, in 2004, when he took part in the Italian Speed Championship (Campionato Italiano Velocità), the Spanish Speed Championship (Campeonato de España de Velocidad) and other national and European competitions, riding an Aprilia provided by the Abruzzo Junior team.

In 2005, he competed for the first time in a full MotoGP season in the 125 class – riding for Aprilia until 2007 – obtaining good placings and finishing the season in 20^th place.

In 2008 he joined Fiorenzo Caponera’s I.C. Team. He won the first world championship race of his career in China, while in Malaysia he took his first pole position and, at the end of the season, he finished 10^th overall. In the 2009 season he remained with the team from the previous season and finished 7^th overall.

In 2010, he moved to Moto2 with Luca Boscoscuro’s Speed Up. He scored three victories and finished the season in 3^rd place. In 2011 he rode the Suter MMXI of the Speed Master team. He took three victories and finished the season in 3^rd place. In 2012 he remained with the same team on a Speed Up. He scored two victories and once again finished the season in 3^rd place.

In 2013, he switched to MotoGP, riding the Ducati Desmosedici for the Pramac Racing team. His best result was an eighth-place finish in Australia, and he finished the season in 12^th place. In 2014, he remained with the same team. His best results were three fifth-place finishes, and he finished the season in 10^th place.

In 2015, he moved to the official Ducati team with teammate Andrea Dovizioso. In Qatar, he scored a third-place finish, as well as his first podium in MotoGP, coming in behind compatriots Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso. At Mugello, he started from pole position for the first time, finishing the race in second place. In Australia, he returned to the 3^rd of the podium after a long battle with Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Márquez, and especially Valentino Rossi, who finished in 4^th place after being overtaken by Iannone just a few turns from the end. He ended the season in 5^th place overall with 188 points.

In the 2016 season, after some difficulties and crashes, he finished in 9th place with 112 points.

He then signed a two-year contract with Suzuki for the 2017–2018 seasons. In Japan, he scored a fourth place as his best result and finished the season with many difficulties in 13th place. On 22 April 2018, he achieved his first podium with Suzuki by finishing 3rd in the Grand Prix of the Americas. He finished the season in 10th place with 133 points.

In 2019, he moved to the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, riding the Aprilia RS-GP. In his debut in Qatar with the Italian bike, he scored a 14th place. He finished the season in 16th place.

On 17 December 2019, the International Motorcycling Federation suspended the rider from racing because he tested positive in a doping control. Traces of anabolic steroids were found in a sample of his urine, allegedly from the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on 3 November of the same year. In January 2020, the results of counter-analysis confirmed the presence of the prohibited substance. On 10 November of the same year, he was disqualified for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (TAS) and all his results from 1 November 2019 onwards were considered invalid.