Iannone admits to wet mapping blunder

The Italian had secured a front row starting slot by qualified third, but dropped to 11th place by the end of the opening lap after a sluggish getaway from the line.

A press statement released by Ducati revealed that the reason for the poor start was because, seconds before the start of the race, Iannone had accidentally activated wet mapping that badly hindered the functioning of the bike's electronics for the rest of the race.

"For sure today's race was very difficult for me, because I made an error that cost me very dear, one that I should have avoided," Iannone said.

"Unfortunately at the start I switched on the mapping for wet conditions instead of launch control, and as a result had to do the whole race with 'wet' set-up because the procedure to return to dry settings is very complicated."

Although he was able to recover from his early setback to finish sixth, just behind the Tech 3 Yamaha of Pol Espargaro, Iannone was contrite at having squandered the opportunity of a better result.

"I tried to get the best result possible in these conditions, but we could certainly have scored a better result here at Jerez and so I feel very sorry for my team, which worked really well this weekend."

"In any case we can't make any excuses, and starting from Le Mans I will try and make up for this weekend with all the guys in my team and Ducati by scoring some good results in the next few races," he concluded.