The ex-MotoGP rider’s fo🔜ur-year ban for doping will expire at the end of this year, and he will return in WorldSBK in 2024 representing GoEleven Ducati.

Despite his lengthy absence, the �൲�Italian impressed by going fifth-fastest and clocking 1’39.335s.

Team manager Denis Sacchetti reacted: “We are really happy with And𓆏rea, with the test, with the team, everything.

“The result is completely unexpected. Really fas♋t…

⛦“It is fantastic to see him with a smile after many years without riding a race bike.

“To be so fast, so determined…

“He has sent a really strong message to his oppone🌠nts, to the whole motorsport world.

“He was really, really fa🅺st. The riders here are from a race ꦑweekend, they finished the championship.

“He’s at the top of his performance. For the first time🌼 in four years at this tཧrack… incredible.

“The lap time is inc🍌redible. Soft tyres, e✤ven with hard tyres…

“W⛦hat is important is the feeling with the bike. He was happy with🐭 the bike. It was easy.

“It was a ☂good feeling, and a good emotion for everyone in the whole team.”

Sacchetti was questionedꦉ on how far Iannone🌜 can realistically go next season.

“It’s difficult to say now because it is early to say somet🦋hing,” he said with a knowing smile.

“I think today we can say ‘he is there’.

“He can be really competitive from the beginning.

“One lap is different to 20 laps consecutively. Today he 💮was tired after 70 laps.

“We are positive for the season, real🦩ly positive. We will enjoy this moment.”

Iannone’s long absence from competitive racing means he lacks r෴ecent experience in the box, a possible challenge for the team around him.

“It was difficult in the ꧃beginning to have a programme of what to do,” Sacchetti sa𒊎id.

“Never♒ in history has a rider, after four years out…

“So it was difficult to have a programme or to kno꧃w what to do.

“He knows well, what he needs, what he has to 🌳do, what ༒he wants.

“Andrea has helped the team to understand the way to work 🍃with him.

“The support from Ducati is pretty good. W🦩e thank everyone.”

Iannone, in his first-two days wearing GoEleven leathers, shocked everybody inside his garage and around the paddock with h♎is speed.

“We started this morning just ro ride, to understand the economy of the bike, then step-by-step to improve his feel🙈ing,” Sacchetti said.

“We didn’t touch the bike. T🅠he work was just from him, to understand the bike and the tyres.”