Andrea Iannone

Andrea Iannone made his long-awaited MotoGP debut in 2013, but a rider known for his exciting riding style at Moto2 level would struggle to make an impression on the troubled Ducati GP13.

Often left to flounder as the lowest-placed prototype rider- and often out-paced by the odd CRT - Iannone’s rookie season was marred by physical difficulties.

The first was in the form of an early season arm-pump operation, requiring 22 stitches, while a shoulder dislocation in Germany forced him to miss two races and left the young Italian at less than full strength for the rest of the season.

Iannone’s best race result was an eighth place in Australia and he remained with Ducati and Pramac for 2014. But although he ran in Pramac colours, Andrea Iannone was very much a factory Ducati rider and emerged as the more consistently competitive team-mate to Andrea Dovizioso than the other man in red, Cal Crutchlow.

A notable step up in consistency and form compared with his maiden 2013 campaign, Iannone - like Dovizioso - often stole the headlines in qualifying as he took advantage of Ducati’s softer compound rear rubber, claiming five front row starts.

But Iannone’s race pace was also eye-catching at times, leading several races and scoring six top-six finishes, as well as being in contention for a podium at the Valencia season finale. Iannone proved himself to be on the up in 2014 and was duly promoted to join Dovizioso in the official Ducati team in 2015.

It would be a breakthrough season, with Iannone claiming his first pole, podiums and fastest lap on the way to a career best fifth in the world championship. The Italian was also the top Desmosedici rider, two places above highly regarded team-mate Dovizioso.

But the way in which the 26-year-old achieved those results was just as significant. Despite dislocating his shoulder - twice - during the season, the hard-riding Italian more than held his own during some stunning battles. Highlights included swapping places with reigning double champion Marc Marquez 17 times at Le Mans and forming part of a lead quartet that made 52 passes at Phillip Island.

One of those saw Iannone overtake both Rossi and Marquez in a single move - surely the overtake of the season - while the way he brushed off an earlier collision with a seagull made mainstream media around the world.

In 2016, Iannone made history season by becoming the first Ducati rider to win a MotoGP race since Casey Stoner left at the end of 2010. But some big mistakes earlier in the year, most notably wiping himself and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso from a double podium finish within sight of the chequered flag in Argentina, meant he was not chosen to partner Jorge Lorenzo in 2017.

That surely made his Austrian win all the more sweeter. The race also highlighted a smarter side to the Italian, who was the only rider to choose the softer rear tyre and managed his pace perfectly. The other side of Iannone's character came in the form of an Instagram video showing him breaking the window of his own Porsche with a hammer, after being locked out at a petrol station!

'The Maniac' joined Suzuki for 2017, and already looked at his aggressive best on the GSX-RR in pre-season testing. But a mistake, for which Iannone as the experienced rider alongside rookie Alex Rins (also injured in winter testing) must take his share of responsibility, had been made with the engine specification.

In an attempt to improve traction, the new Suzuki engine chosen for 2017 had greater internal inertia. But from the early stages of the racing season it became clear that the traction benefits were more than cancelled out by new problems with manoeuvrability and turning.

The engine issue was compounded by the fact that Suzuki had now lost technical concessions and so was stuck with its engine design for the remainder of the season. The result was that a bike what won a race with Maverick Vinales on the way to fourth in the world championship the previous year, did no better than fourth place with Iannone and just 13th in the world championship.

The mistakes were corrected for 2018 when Iannone took four podiums, but was comprehensively outscored by rising star Rins.

It soon became clear that Suzuki were not impressed by how Iannone's role as team leader and no new contract was offered for 2019, prompting the Italian to sign for back-of-the-grid Aprilia.

The closest match yet for Aleix Espargaro at Aprilia, Iannone made history when he briefly put the RS-GP into the race lead at Phillip Island, on the way to matching the factory's best four-stroke finish of sixth place.

The following weekend in Malaysia, Iannone was selected for a random anti-doping test. Just over a month later it was announced that Iannone’s urine sample was found to include a prohibited substance, later revealed to be the banned steroid Drostanolone.

Iannone was handed an 18-month ban by the FIM. The #29 then appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), arguing that the source of the prohibited steroid was contaminated meat in Malaysia and the ban should therefore be overturned.

However, WADA (The World Anti-Doping Agency) also launched an appeal, seeking an extended four-year ban on the grounds that Iannone 'failed to establish... that the origin of the prohibited substance [was] meat contamination.'

The CAS ultimately sided with WADA, declaring that Iannone committed an anti-doping violation on the grounds that he 'failed to establish neither the precise type of meat he had consumed nor the origin of said meat… Nor that there was an issue of meat contamination by Drostanolone in Malaysia'.

The decision means that the Italian - a winner of 4 125 GPs, 8 Moto2 GPs, plus a MotoGP victory with Ducati - will not be eligible to race again until the 2024 season, by which time he will be 34 years old.