Andrea Iannone intends to switch to the latest Suzuki chassis at the forthcoming Assen round, after putting the frame through its paces during Monday's Catalunya MotoGP test.

The Italian headed the timesheets for most of the day, only losing out on the best lap time to Honda's world champion Marc Marquez in the closing minutes, after Iannone had left the track.

"Today we focused on choosing the chassis," Iannone confirmed. "In Mugello the new chassis arrived and Alex Rins chose it from the beginning.

"But during the race weekend it's difficult because we focus for the race. So we compared again here."

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The new chassis is distinguishable by the use of some 'reinforced' carbon fibre on the upper spars (see pic: Old chassis left, new right).

"At the end my feeling is a little bit better [with the new chassis]. I choose the best chassis for me and in any case we will see. It's a small step forward but it's better than nothing," said Iannone.

"For me it's better on the exit of the corner. It reduces a little bit the movement. I struggle a lot with the movement and with this chassis I have less movement."

But the chassis decision and fast lap time were not enough to brighten Iannone's mood.

The 28-year-old - switching to Aprilia next season, to make way for Joan Mir – was frustrated by the plummeting tyre performance from his GSX-RR.

After fighting for the lead on the opening lap of Sunday's race, Iannone dropped to tenth place and 24-seconds from victory by the chequered flag.

"I talk always about the drop of the tyres. I talk also with the engineers of Suzuki. I talk about the electronics. We cannot maintain the tyres on a good level," he said.

"After three-four laps we have a big drop and the bike slides and spins a lot. I talk everyday about this. But at the end it's like this. Nothing changed at the moment."

Is it frustrating?

"Yes, because I think I am a really strong rider. It's possible to fight with the first three riders at the moment, but it's not possible [for me] to do it alone. I need good support from my bike."

The counter argument was that tyre endurance is always a major factor at Catalunya and Iannone should been more conservative in the early laps.

Team-mate Alex Rins, who retired from the race, was eight fastest at the test.