Monster Yamaha's Johann Zarco will move back to the 2016 M1 chassis with which he enjoyed MotoGP podium success last year as the 2017 version lacks outright performance.

After spending test time at Valencia and then Sepang running the 2017 frame, he has decided to use specification championed by Jorge Lorenzo in 2016 with an updated engine.

"I decided to use my bike from last year to have all the information and understand even more things about my feeling. In the morning it was perfect conditions to be really fast and a 1'59.5 is quite good, but not good enough," said Zarco, speaking at Sepang.

“At least I could have the grip I was missing the day before. I feel that now with one more year of experience I still have things to learn. I will at the next tests keep working on the bike I was using last year and find a way to ride it as Lorenzo was riding it two years ago. I think doing what he was doing will help me be faster.

“ A 1'59.5s is not bad and I would like a bit better but I need to wait a little bit to improve also myself. Then when it was quite warm we used these tyres that I did the fast lap.

“I tried the race simulation and did 13 laps in a row. Physically I was feeling much better than what I was doing one year ago. The pace could maybe be four tenths faster every lap. It should have been faster but at least I was so constant with saving my energy.”