'A good moment for us' - Iannone, Suzuki set Friday pace

Andrea Iannone put Suzuki at the top of the timesheets on his final lap of the Losail Circuit in Qatar on Friday night.

The Italian had been in the front pack for much of the evening, then edged 0.041s under former Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso's time on a late run, consisting of a single flying lap.

"I think it's a good moment for us, good test," said Iannone, without a podium during his first season at Suzuki. "I think also in Sepang and Thailand the feeling with the bike - in some areas it's really good but in others not.

"In the braking point and first part of corner entry I struggled a lot [at Sepang and Buriram]. I lose the front in every corner and I didn’t use 100% of the potential of the bike.

"But here the corners are more fast, more easy, more smooth. So I have a good feeling with the front. I brake very good and the bike improve a little bit. We, day-by-day, work in a good way and improve a little bit the lap time.

"For sure I'm happy because I finish on top, but sincerely I think it's important that we continue to improve because we need more performance."

Quizzed on his race pace, Iannone added:

"I think we have a good pace but I'm not really happy at 100%. For sure I think we tomorrow will focus a little bit more for improve the pace because we need some tenths more.

"In any case we’ve started this test very well, this is the most important thing."

Team-mate Alex Rins was fifth quickest, 0.381s behind Iannone's best time.

“For me this second day was really good, we didn’t have new things to test, we’ve just been focused on finalising the GSX-RR for the race pace," said the Spaniard.

"We tried small things on the suspension, but not too much. I think it was really positive because our pace was very good over more than one lap. Tomorrow I’ll try to do a race simulation to see where we are ‘in reality’."