Ecstar Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone has been forced to lower his MotoGP expectations after a tough opening three races in 2017 have seen him with just one top-ten finish.

The Italian, who moved from a works Ducati seat at the end of 2016, didn’t finish either the Qatar or Argentina races but bounced back with seventh in Austin and says that trying to fight with the Yamahas was a reach too far at this stage.

“The first two races were very difficult. We have never been as competitive as we wanted. Maybe my expectations were too high. Now we have lowered a bit the level, we can try to steady ourselves and bring home what we can achieve for now,” Iannone told an Italian TV channel

“We have understood what we must do to improve, and we are trying. We treated this race as if it were a test, trying to arrive as high up as possible. Many times we have made improvements, but the cure for our situation still isn’t there.

“Obviously I’m not happy with what I achieved, because we are here to reach the top and at the moment we haven’t the tools to do it. But we have to do it soon, because I want to fight with those who are at the top of this category.”