Suzuki test went “beyond expectations”, says Iannone

The former Ducati rider set the pace on day two at the Malaysian track with a best effort of 1m59.452s, which was only bettered by Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales on the final day.

Iannone was only 11th fastest on Wednesday as he chose to focus purely on longer runs, and also suffered two crashes as he explored the limits of the new GSX-RR.

Despite the incidents, Iannone was satisfied with the test, although he singled out the electronics as one area where Suzuki must make improvements ahead of the Qatar season opener.

“Our tests went well, beyond expectations,” said Iannone. “We are learning a lot with every change we make.

“Here in Sepang we started to change the set-up of the bike, and it responds well every time.

“For sure we didn't change the chassis, this is perfect actually. Despite that, Suzuki knows that the engineers must work on electronics and some [other] little components of our bike.

“Those can be a great improvement for us, and I hope to have that before the start of the season.”

Rins focused on mileage

Iannone’s new teammate Alex Rins ended up 12th overall in Sepang in his first outing since injuring his back last November at Valencia.

The Spaniard was also upbeat about his progress, saying he is confident he will make swift progress and he acquires more MotoGP mileage.

"I'm very happy about the three days and specially with Wednesday," said Rins. "I've drawn a lot of conclusions about how the bike handles.

"I had never worked with so many used tyres, but the time was also there when I ran with the new tyres. The most important thing is that I'm finding the limits of the bike.

"After Monday I thought I wouldn't be able to cope with Tuesday and Wednesday, because my back was a bit sore.

"But I've finished pretty fresh and that means that we have worked well during the pre-season."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont