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Iannone Believes His Next Teammate Will Be Jorge Lorenzo

"For me, Jorge will come to Ducati. I don't know whether he has signed or not, but to me, he is coming to Ducati," factory Ducati rider Andrea Iannone tells the Spanish newspaper Marca. The Italian rider sounds overly confident that his Ducati seat is certain for at least one more year after his recent podium at the Circuit of the Americas, but we're still taking this with a grain of salt.
Track action with Iannone and Lorenzo 1 photo
Photo: motogp.com
Iannone's status quo improved significantly after the North American round, and his third-best finish sort of smoothed out the brutal Argentinian experience from last week. A few days ago, paddock rumors indicated that, after Argentina, Iannone was, in fact, with one foot out of Ducati, so reading his bold new statement may indicate that things changed a bit.

Andrea "The Maniac" Iannone also speaks about the similarities between his riding style and Lorenzo's, adding that a team with two riders with a similar approach to the bike and track is a plus.

"I think it would be a very good team because we have very similar riding styles, something that has never happened with Dovizioso. Andrea has a very different style to mine and, therefore, often to get a good set-up or to pursue an opening we take different paths," Iannone adds.

Speaking about bike development, Iannone might be right, but life in the paddock showed us that experimenting with various directions can also lead to great results. Iannone also reckons that having Lorenzo as a teammate could also help him improve as a pilot: "He is a stronger rider than I am. He has done better than me over the years, so maybe I can learn some things from him," Marca reports.

Dovizioso's bad luck streak saw him crashed into twice

Currently, Andrea Dovizioso is probably the unluckiest rider on the grid, failing to finish the last two races after being crashed into. If you missed the race at the Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina, we'll remind you that an error made by Iannone one turn before the end of the race caused him to crash while being in the third position and take his teammate Andrea Dovizioso with him, who was running in the second position.

With such a move, Ducati was deprived a double podium in Argentina, a feat that Borgo Panigale has not enjoyed too much of over the past years.

Making things worse for both him and Ducati, Dovi was taken out of contention yesterday in Austin after Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa lost control of his bike and hit the Ducati. Dovizioso was running in third, also looking strong at the time when Pedrosa's bike hit his.

We reckon it would be unfair to judge Dovizioso's lack of results in such conditions, but until Lorenzo makes a call, everything is only a bunch of whats and ifs. The latest paddock rumors see Lorenzo announcing his move at Jerez. It may be so, especially as it appears that Lin Jarvis is also expecting him to clarify this matter as soon as possible.
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