Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) had a stellar rookie MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship campaign, but his season is lasting at least one more event as he makes a stunning but unexpected return to MotoGP™. ‘The Maniac’ is replacing Fabio Di Giannantonio at the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team at the Malaysian Grand Prix, five years after his last appearance in the Championship. Speaking on Thursday at Sepang, the #29 revealed how his return came about, including a missed call from Valentino Rossi, and what he’s expecting to achieve.

Iannone's last MotoGP™ race was in 2019 at the Valencian Grand Prix after he was sanctioned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following a violation of an anti-doping rule after a positive test for a banned substance in the Malaysian GP of that year, coming in from December 17th, 2019. He was subsequently banned for four years but made his motorcycle racing comeback this year in WorldSBK and proved he still had all the raw speed and talent despite so long away from the track.

He claimed a rostrum in his first race at Phillip Island and stood on the podium five times in total, including a famous Race 1 win at Aragon which ended an eight-year drought for the Italian; his last win had been the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix. It’s been a remarkable 2024 for Iannone and it got better on the Friday at Jerez, when he received a call from nine-time World Champion Rossi, asking him if he wanted to replace Di Giannantonio after the Italian underwent surgery on his shoulder.

Discussing how his return to MotoGP™ happened, Iannone revealed he actually missed Rossi’s initial call to start with. He said: “During the flight to Jerez, Vale called me, but my phone was off. When I arrived at Jerez, I turned on my phone and I saw a message from Vale: ‘Andrea, I called you, but your phone is off. When you see the message, call me back please’. When I called him back, he had one question for me: ‘do you want to ride the bike in the last two races because Diggia’s having surgery?’. I didn’t decide in one second, but immediately! I think it’s a good story, a beautiful story.”

A lot has changed in MotoGP™ since Iannone last competed as bikes and tyres have evolved with technological enhancements. Iannone alluded to this when discussing his expectations for the weekend, which he also played down due to the amount of time he’s been away from the Championship. For this weekend, he’ll be on the GP23 which ‘Diggia’ has ridden to a best of fourth place at the TT Circuit Assen.

On his return to the paddock and expectations, Iannone said: “Everything is strange but really good! Honestly, I don’t have a lot of words because I’m full of emotion. I’m really happy to be here. I’m emotional because tomorrow I’ll finally try the bike one more time. I think it’s strange because the bike’s changed a lot but I’m curious. I don’t know what to expect because the bike’s changed a lot, in many areas. I don’t want to think a lot like this. I want to go on the bike, start to ride and see what happens.”

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