MOTOGP: Suzuki's Iannone leaves Jerez test early

Suzuki recruit Andrea Iannone will not ride on the final two days of the Jerez MotoGP test, in order to save the manufacturer's testing allowance.

The former Ducati rider made his debut with Suzuki last week at Valencia, finishing impressed with the GSX-RR chassis and with the fourth-fastest time. With rookie teammate Alex Rins sidelined, Iannone was Suzuki's sole race rider at Jerez and lapped on Wednesday, but will take no further part on Thursday or Friday.

Honda and Ducati's factory riders are not present, while Yamaha is testing with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales at Sepang.

Now restricted to five days of private running, Suzuki elected to end Iannone's test at Jerez after he set the seventh-fastest time on Wednesday. The Italian will ride for the next time in 2017's first official pre-season test at Sepang starting on Jan. 30, while Suzuki will stay on at Jerez with test rider Takuya Tsuda.

"We achieved a good result in making the whole testing program in only one day with Iannone," team manager Davide Brivio said. "After having lost the concessions we want to save testing days for the future and having completed all the tests we needed we won't have him ride more.

"Our purpose here was not the chase to the fastest lap but to allow him to improve his feeling with the machine and help us to determine the future development."

Iannone completed 68 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix venue, with his engine work featuring on his program.

"We brought here some different specs of the engine that he tried, and he gave us the direction to take in the winter," Brivio added. "We will not develop a brand-new engine for 2017; we will develop an evolution of the actual engine and Andrea gave us the feedback we needed to understand which character of the engine to develop, according to his experience and needs.

"He did a great job today – very intense until the very end of the available track time, and we must thank him for this contribution."

Avintia Ducati's Hector Barbera set the fastest time on Wednesday, a 1m39.614s to be 0.192 seconds faster than teammate Loris Baz.

Aleix Espargaro and Sam Lowes were fifth and 15th fastest of the MotoGP riders in attendance for Aprilia, with KTM's Mika Kallio and Bradley Smith 11th and 13th.

Originally on Autosport.com