Andrea Iannone has admitted he tried not to think about the pain as he pushed at 100 per cent to cross the line third in today’s final MotoGP race of the year at Valencia.
The Italian, who is still struggling with a back injury sustained in a crash at Misano in September, says a podium was the perfect way to bow out from the Ducati Team as he heads to pastures new next season.
But it was a podium he was forced to work hard for, as he battled with Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi today, the pair swapping places around a dozen times during the race and battling all the way to the final lap when Iannone finally got the better of The Doctor and secured third place.
“For sure I’m very happy for this last race because I fight a lot from the beginning, I start very well, arrive on the first corner in second position and I try to follow Jorge but Jorge had incredible pace. I tried my best always in every lap,” he said.
And he admitted he had not expected such a good result earlier in the weekend. “The feeling with the bike from Friday is very bad and I not believe the bike is possible to improve a lot,” he explained.
“But with my team, with my engineers during the meeting explain to me ‘you have the ability - believe in you and believe in your team because we want to close this season at the best’. I think with this hard work, today this result is possible.
“I’m very happy because I push at 100 per cent for the race, everything is difficult but I put all of me in this race.
“I don’t think of my pain, I understand I have pain, I have less energy and for this I try to overtake Vale when he overtake me and the bike helped me a lot on the straight because of our strong power and I think this was a good strategy.
“I think we had a great, great battle and I am happy with the result because it is my last race with my team, with Ducati.”